Rats, Lice and History by Allen Grimshaw & Gerald N. Grob

Author:Allen Grimshaw & Gerald N. Grob
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Since Procopius himself believed these things, his account reflects the terrified helplessness and panic which spread with this pestilence.

Four months the plague remained in Byzantium. At first, few died — then there were 5000, later 10,000 deaths a day. "Finally, when there was a scarcity of grave-diggers, the roofs were taken off the towers of the forts, the interiors filled with the corpses, and the roofs replaced." Corpses were placed on ships, and these abandoned to the sea. "And after the plague had ceased, there was so much depravity and general licentiousness, that it seemed as though the disease had left only the most wicked."

Procopius devotes a number of paragraphs to a description which is our only clue to diagnosis: —

They were taken with a sudden fever: some suddenly wakened from sleep; others while they were occupied with various matters during the daytime. The fever, from morning to night, was so slight that neither the patients nor the physician feared danger, and no one believed that he would die. But in many even on the first day, in others on the day following, in others again not until later, a bubo appeared both in the inguinal regions and under the armpits; in some behind the ears, and in any part of the body whatsoever.

To this point, the disease was the same in everyone, but in the later stages there were individual differences. Some went into a deep coma; others into violent delirium. If they neither fell asleep nor became delirious, the swelling gangrened and these died from excess of pain. It was not contagious to touch, since no doctor or private individual fell ill from the sick or dead; for many who nursed or buried, remained alive in their service, contrary to all expectations. Some of the physicians unacquainted with this disease and in the belief that the buboes were the chief site of the sickness, examined the bodies of the dead, opened the buboes and found a great many pustular places.

Some died at once; others after many days; and the bodies of some broke out with black blisters the size of a lentil. These did not live after one day, but died at once; and many were quickly killed by a vomiting of blood which attacked them. Physicians could not tell which cases were light and which severe, and no remedies availed.

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