Was the Great Athenian Plague a Pandemic? An Assessment of the Athens Plague Spread

Plague of Athens, an epidemic mostly perceived as a regional disease with great significance in political, social, demographic and historical consequences, is more effective in much wider geography than it appears. It was considered a religious disaster in Greece and Rome. It has been least discussed in historians' writings, and most of the diseases were written as superficial with no accurate diagnosis. Therefore, by the writings of historians, the exact diagnosis of the diseases is not possible. After all, by evaluating the epidemics that occurred in different areas, there is a significant chance to assess the epidemic by a broader perspective. It becomes possible to discuss the disaster caused by the Plague of Athens in the past times. We aim to bring light on history's most crucial plague; to discuss Athenian plague by closer perspective, overview its effect in the past and future, and makeup whether it was one of the world's first pandemics. In this study, it was discussed whether Rome, which is not mentioned in Thucydides' geographies in the origin's context of the epidemic could be linked to the epidemic and its possibility to be a "pandemic" was evaluated. In this study, the route followed by the epidemic based on Greek and Roman sources and the possibilities that were processed as different epidemics in previous sources, but not related, were evaluated, and the Plague of Athens was tried to be approached from a different perspective. 

Keywords

Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Athens, plague, epidemic, pandemic