Deafness, rather than blindness, which afflicted the sufferers of Athens, is another tell-tale symptom of typhus.īubonic plague was dismissed just as easily due to a lack of evidence showing the presence of black rats which carried the fleas containing the Yersinia pestis microbe. Typhus was eliminated as there appeared to be no critical amount of black rats carrying the lice nor was any evidence offered that Athens or its citizens lived in dirt and squalor, lacked basic personal hygiene (bathing or clean clothes) to support lice. Many of the sufferers died within 7-9 days from the onset of symptoms. Many of the sick found it difficult to sleep, instead, displaying a constant restlessness. Thucydides observed that the ill were "tormented by an unceasing thirst" which was not satiated regardless of the amount of liquids consumed. Thucydides further described patients whose fever was so intense that they preferred to be naked than wearing any clothing that touched their skin some even preferred to be submerged in cold water.
Violent heats in the head redness and inflammation of the eyes throat and tongue quickly suffused with blood breath became unnatural and fetid sneezing and hoarseness violent cough' vomiting retching violent convulsions the body externally not so hot to the touch, nor yet pale a livid color inkling to red breaking out in pustules and ulcers.
Despite his lack of medical training, Thucydides provided a vivid account of a variety of ailments that afflicted the diseases: Thucydides, in the History of the Peloponnesian War, paused in his narrative of the war to provide an extremely detailed description of the symptoms of those he observed to be afflicted symptoms he shared as he, too, was struck by the illness. Tilemahos Efthimiadis (CC BY-SA) Thucydides' Description of the Plague
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