So, you survived the plague! Yes, if you had COVID-19, you recovered. And if you have not had it, your immunity is working. People in the ancient world had little hope of survival. Since time began, the world has suffered disasters causing chaos, disruption of daily life, pain, and death. In ancient times, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruption were backyard occurrences. Plague wiped out large percentages of entire populations. No one was safe from the ravages of war or the terrifying invasions of marauding nomads. There were no pharmacies, only singular individuals who tried every herb and root––even dung––to cure the unfortunate victims of Nature. People prayed to the gods of Water, Wind, and Fire to give them succor, for it was humans who had obviously ignored the worship of the gods, seeking their own goals and pursuing their selfish pleasures. Blaming themselves for foreign invasion, the Hebrews accepted personal consequences of the Assyrian invasions and displacement of their people to Babylon because they said they had ignored Yahweh’s Laws.
With abandon, the gods destroyed what people had made, sparing only the few. In stories from around the world, floods covered the earth; mountains disappeared in smoke. From the island of Thera, entire Mediterranean populations were displaced or destroyed by volcanic eruption around 1600 BCE. Two centuries later, the turbulence of war, drought, and famine displaced thousands of natives––the Sea Peoples––those who searched for fertile land in which to settle, and brigands, who just wanted booty, toppled civilizations including the intrepid Hittites. Over millennia, rampant fear surged through the caves and small villages. Mothers clung to their children, those who had survived the surprise onslaught. People struck deals with the gods. “I will obey your commands,” they cried pitifully, crouching near the spent fire that had destroyed their charred homes.
Life as they had known it indeed changed. Survivors helped each other to rebuild. New sources of food were found. Some resettled to other, more fertile climes. Life continued until the next catastrophe hit. With knowledge of the past, people faced each crisis, and braced for the unknown. Those who profited from the grim lessons became better leaders. Unfortunately, people forgot their deals with the gods, forgot the harsh lessons from the past, and danced on the razor’s edge of veracity.
History repeats itself. Over the millennia, plagues have come and gone. The earliest reported plague was the Plague of Athens, 430–426 BCE. Just as the Peloponnesian War was theirs to win, the plague killed one-third of Athens’ population including the seemingly invincible leader, Pericles. Of course, there were earlier plagues, but they could not be reported because, as yet, there was no written language.
As people outside Athens sought refuge within the city walls, a movement that would be appropriate against human invasion, was disastrous. The rural peoples died with the infected, crowded city population. The movement, appropriate against a human invasion, was deadly against hidden, mysterious, and virulent bacteria and unknown microbes. Pericles’s mismanagement and miscalculations of the force afflicting his people claimed needless more Greek lives and were based upon a lack of factual knowledge.
Periodically other plagues invaded the ancient world. The Antonine Plague, 165–180 CE, brought down mighty Rome. Galen, father of medicine, explained that soldiers returning from the Near East brought the pandemic to the Roman Empire, claiming ten percent of the population. As the pestilence dissipated, hope returned to the people, and life seemed to return to normal. However, within nine years, it returned and continued to claim lives until 270 CE. As the Plague of Athens ended the Peloponnesian War, this horrific disease in Rome ended antiquity.
But plagues continued, Bubonic Plague, also called the Black Death, affected Europe and Asia in the 1300s. The Spanish Plague of 1918 was followed by devastating occurrences of Influenza the same year. All came by stealth and surprise with lethal consequences. With no warning, no knowledge of hygiene, and no medications to abate the ravages of the earth’s quiet killers, millions all over the world died. Earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions gave people scant warning. Some could take to higher ground and survive, but with airborne waves of invisible disease, others’ only recourse was suffering, agony, and––sometimes welcome––death.
Today, Coronavirus disease, 2019’s highly infectious plague, may or may not be man-made; nevertheless, it is a disturbance of normal life, a lesson that humankind is not totally in control of natural––or unnatural––catastrophes. But the advantage of today is our knowledge that poor hygiene, dangers of mass group interaction, and lack of self-care invite raging disease. That said, COVID-19 has now been reported to have killed more Americans than the 1918 Spanish Flu.[1] Yet world-wide statistics do not compare with the ancient population losses of the individual cities of Athens and Rome.
In all catastrophes, some will survive, and through it all, some will be stronger, wiser, and more innovative. Life on Earth will always change. Heraclitus wrote, and Renaissance writers avowed, “The only constant in life is change.” The Stoics say, “Embrace Change.”
[1] https://www.wkrn.com/special-reports/then-versus-now-covid-surpasses-spanish-flu-death-toll/