Plague of Athens
The Ancients
00:00
Thucydides
Thucydides gives the best description of plague in his book 'The History of Plagues' In 1994, archaeologists found 240 bodies piled together in a pit. The dating looks absolutely right to the period of the plague and it's hard to think of an explanation that doesn't point to the plague for this one. Over 30 different kinds of suggestions have been made for what the actual plague is. None of them are quite perfect but they're all very good candidates.
Play episode from 17:38
Transcript
