The 412 BC epidemic of an unknown disease, often identified as influenza,[1][2][3] was reported in Northern Greece by Hippocrates[4] and in Rome by Livy.[5] Both described the epidemic continuing for roughly a year.[citation needed]
The disease outbreak caused a food shortage in the Roman Republic, and a famine was only prevented with food relief from Sicily and Etruria, and via trade missions to the "peoples round about who dwelt on the Tuscan sea or by the Tiber."[6]
Symptoms
editHippocrates named a wide variety of symptoms, among them: fever, coughing, pain in head and neck, and emaciation. The disease proved fatal most often among prepubescent children.[4]
References
edit- ^ Potter, C. W. (2002). "Foreword". Influenza. Elsevier Science. p. vii.
- ^ Nelson, Kenrad E. (2001). Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory and Practice. Jones and Bartlett. p. 334.
- ^ Hardman, Lizabeth (2011). Influenza Pandemics. Lucent Books. p. 8.
- ^ a b Hippocrates, Of the Epidemics, Book I
- ^ Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 3-5
- ^ Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 5-6
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