Killing nearly a third of the population, an epidemic ripped through Athens in 430 B.C. Historic accounts and new technology are helping identify the true culprit.

公元前430年，一場奪去了近三分之一人口生命的流行病席卷了雅典。歷史卷宗和新技術正在幫助人們找出真正的罪魁禍首。
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BYCE?SAR SIERRA MARTI?N

作者：塞薩爾·塞拉·馬丁

Two of the most powerful city-states in ancient Greece—Sparta and Athens—went to war in 431 B.C. Tensions between the two had been simmering for decades before boiling over into war. Occupying the lands of the Peloponnese (mainland Greece’s southern-most peninsula), Sparta enacted a land-based strategy, relying on their disciplined hoplites to defeat the Athenians in the open field.

公元前431年，古希臘最強大的兩個城邦斯巴達和雅典爆發(fā)了戰(zhàn)爭。實際上，兩國之間的緊張關系在爆發(fā)戰(zhàn)爭之前已經持續(xù)了幾十年。斯巴達占領了伯羅奔尼撒半島(希臘大陸最南端的半島)，制定了陸基戰(zhàn)略，依靠他們紀律嚴明的重裝步兵在開闊的戰(zhàn)場上擊敗了雅典人。

When Spartan troops would invade Attica (the peninsula where Athens and its allies were located), Athenians responded with naval attacks on politically sensitive points in the Peloponnese. Rural populations in Attica would be forced to take refuge within Athens’s city walls when Sparta invaded.

當斯巴達軍隊入侵阿提卡(雅典及其盟友所在的半島)時，雅典人用海軍攻擊伯羅奔尼撒半島的政治敏感位置作為反擊。當斯巴達入侵時，阿提卡的農村居民被迫在雅典的城墻內避難。

The Peloponnesian War would end by fundamentally shifting power in the Mediterranean, but neither Athens’s navy nor Sparta’s soldiers could claim to be the determining factor of the conflict. That honor belongs to an event that nobody could have predicted or planned for: the plague of Athens, which broke out in the war’s second year. A medical mystery to this day, this ancient epidemic would be the most influential factor to shape the war and decide which city-state would be the final victor.

伯羅奔尼撒戰(zhàn)爭最終以地中海地區(qū)權力的根本性轉移而告終，但雅典海軍和斯巴達士兵都不能被視為這場沖突的決定性因素。這一榮譽屬于一個沒有人預料到或計劃到的事件:雅典瘟疫，這場瘟疫在戰(zhàn)爭開始的第二年爆發(fā)。這是一個至今仍未解開的醫(yī)學謎題，這種古老的流行病可能是影響這場戰(zhàn)爭以及決定哪個城邦最終獲勝的最具影響力的因素。

Outbreak

瘟疫爆發(fā)

In spring 430 B.C. locals in Piraeus, the port area of Athens, began to fall ill with a disease no one had seen before. The malady spread quickly. Reports circulated of similar outbreaks on the island of Lemnos, in the north Aegean, and other locations.

公元前430年春天，雅典港口地區(qū)的比雷埃夫斯居民開始感染上一種不為人知的疾病。這種病傳播得很快。在愛琴海北部的萊姆諾斯島和其他地方也有著類似的疫情報告。

In Piraeus, rumors spread that when the Spartans had arrived they had poisoned the wells there so that Athenians were sickened by drinking contaminated water. In a matter of weeks, the disease had spread to the heart of the city and was affecting people of all ages and backgrounds and in unprecedented proportions. The strategy of the Athenian leader Pericles to bring people from rural Attica into the walled city of Athens, only increased the rate of contagion. The illness did not affect the Spartans to the same degree as the Athenians. In total, it is estimated that between 25 and 35 percent of the population of Athens would perish as a result of the plague when it ended five years later.

在比雷埃夫斯地區(qū)，有謠言說當斯巴達人到達當?shù)貢r，他們在那里的水井里下了毒，因此雅典人是喝了被污染的水而生病。在短短數(shù)周的時間里，這一疾病就已經蔓延到了城市中心，并以前所未有的規(guī)模影響著所有人。雅典領導人伯里克利的策略是把人們從阿提卡農村帶到雅典，但是這只會增加傳染的速度。 這場瘟疫中，斯巴達人受到的影響并不像雅典人那樣嚴重。據(jù)估計，為期五年的瘟疫結束時，總共有25%到35%的雅典人死于瘟疫。

The main source of information about the epidemic comes from the historian Thucydides, who not only witnessed the events firsthand but survived the disease himself. In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides believes the plague originated in eastern Africa, in the lands of ancient Ethiopia (present-day Sudan). From there, the sickness traveled north to Egypt and Libya and east to the Persian Empire before reaching Greece.

關于這一流行病的主要信息來源是歷史學家修昔底德，他不僅親眼目睹了這一事件，而且他自己也是瘟疫中的幸存者。修昔底德在他的《伯羅奔尼撒戰(zhàn)爭史》(History of the Peloponnesian War)一書中認為，這場瘟疫起源于非洲東部的古埃塞俄比亞(今蘇丹)。從那里，疾病向北傳播到埃及和利比亞，向東傳播到波斯帝國，然后到達了希臘。

Early in his account, Thucydides writes: “I shall give a statement of what it was like, which people can study in case it should ever attack again.” His descxtions chart how the disease progressed in its victims, from the first symptoms: “[P]eople in good health were all of a sudden attacked by heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath.”

修昔底德在他早期的書稿中寫道:“我將陳述它是什么樣子的，以便人們可以研究，以防它再次襲擊?！彼拿枋鲇涗浟耸芎φ叩募膊∵M展, 從第一個癥狀開始:“身體健康的人們被頭痛腦熱突然襲擊, 患者出現(xiàn)紅腫和發(fā)炎的眼睛, 身體內部出現(xiàn)了如喉嚨和舌頭流血, 發(fā)出反常的口臭等癥狀?！?/b>
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Symptoms included “sneezing and hoarseness” before the disease attacked the chest, causing “a hard cough,” and then the stomach, where it triggered “discharges of bile,” “ineffectual retching,” and “violent spasms.” By this point the victim was in “very great distress.”

疾病癥狀還包括“打噴嚏和聲音嘶啞”，然后疾病還會襲擊胸部，導致“劇烈的咳嗽”，然后襲擊胃部，引發(fā)“膽汁排泄”，“無效的干嘔”和“劇烈的痙攣”。這時，受害者會“非常痛苦”。

Thucydides describes the appearance of the patient’s skin: “reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers.” Sufferers described intense fevers, feeling as though a fire was consuming them inside, so they would remove all their clothes. They experienced an “unquenchable thirst,” which led some to plunge themselves into water tanks as well. Extreme insomnia followed.

修昔底德也描述了病人皮膚的外觀:“發(fā)紅、青色，然后突然出現(xiàn)小膿皰和潰瘍?！?據(jù)患者描述，他們發(fā)燒得很厲害，感覺好像有一堆火在吞噬他們，所以他們會脫掉所有的衣服。他們經歷了“無法抑制的口渴”，這導致一些人直接跳進水箱里。隨之而來的是極端的失眠。

Thucydides not only left behind a gift in his descxtions of the plague’s physical symptoms; he also recorded the psychological impact the epidemic had in Athens:

修昔底德不僅在描述瘟疫的生理癥狀時留下了重要記錄;他還記錄了該疾病在雅典給人們造成的心理影響:

The most terrifying aspect of the whole affliction was the despair which resulted when someone realized that he had the disease: people immediately lost hope, and so through their attitude of mind were much more likely to let themselves go and not hold out . . . [T]he disaster was overpowering, and as people did not know what would become of them, they tended to neglect the sacred and the secular alike. All the funeral customs which had previously been observed were thrown into confusion and the dead were buried in any way possible.

整個痛苦中最可怕的是當一個人意識到自己患有這種疾病時所產生的絕望:人們立即失去了希望，因此他們的心態(tài)更有可能是讓自己放手，而不是堅持下去……災難勢不可擋，由于人們不知道接下來他們會發(fā)生什么，所以他們往往忽視了神圣和世俗。所有以前遵守的葬禮習俗都被打亂了，死者被以任何可能的方式埋葬了。

Treating the sick

治療病人

Thucydides reports that many patients died within seven to nine days of being infected. If they made it through the first stage, they might then suffer severe ulceration of the bowels accompanied by diarrhea; the ensuing weakness generally proved fatal. The main problems in treating the disease was its novelty and its contagiousness. Doctors had never experienced anything quite like it, leaving their expertise powerless against the epidemic. “No remedy was found that could be used as a specific,” writes Thucydides, “for what did good in one case, did harm in another.” Regardless of the treatment given, he writes, “strong and weak constitutions proved equally incapable of resistance, all alike being swept away.”

修昔底德報告說，許多病人在感染后7到9天內就死亡了。如果他們安全度過了第一階段，他們可能會遭受嚴重的腸潰瘍并伴有腹瀉;隨之而來的癥狀通常被證明是致命的。治療該病的主要問題是它的新穎性和傳染性。醫(yī)生們從未經歷過這樣的事情，他們的專業(yè)知識對這種流行病無能為力。修昔底德寫道:“沒有一種藥物可以作為一種特定的藥物，在一種情況下有益的藥物，在另一種情況下可能就有害。”他寫道，無論所受到的待遇如何，“強壯和虛弱的體質被證明同樣無力抵抗，所有體質的人們在疾病面前都會毫無例外地被攻擊?！?/b>

The contagious disease took a toll on those who cared for the sick. Physicians were badly hit early on. Indeed, anyone who nursed their sick loved ones paid a high price: “[I]f they ventured to do so, death was the consequence.” If they did not, the patients “perished from neglect.” Thucydides notes that “it was with those who had recovered from the disease that the sick and the dying found most compassion. These knew what it was from experience.”

傳染病使照顧病人的人也付出了慘重的代價。醫(yī)生們在早期受到了嚴重的打擊。事實上，任何照顧他們生病的親人的人都付出了高昂的代價:“如果他們冒險這么做，后果就是死亡。”如果他們不這樣做，病人也會“死于被忽視。”修昔底德指出:“病人和垂死之人最同情那些從疾病中恢復過來的人。他們清楚地知道這些人到底經受了什么?！?/b>

Infection seems to have brought with it some immunity: “The same man was never attacked twice.” Those who had been infected but had come through might experience a brief, euphoric feeling that they could survive anything. Even so, the plague, whatever it was, could leave those who recovered with severe aftereffects. Some people were “seized with an entire loss of memory on their first recovery, and did not know either themselves or their friends.” Many survivors suffered lasting damage to their fingers and toes, genitals, and eyes.

感染似乎帶來了某種免疫力:“同一個人從未遭受過兩次病毒攻擊。”那些已經被感染過但已經康復的人可能會有一種短暫的、愉悅的感覺，覺得自己能戰(zhàn)勝一切。但即便如此，不管是什么瘟疫，都會給那些康復的人留下嚴重的后遺癥。有些人“在第一次康復時就完全失去了記憶，既不認識自己，也不認識朋友?！边€有許多幸存者的手指、腳趾、生殖器和眼睛遭受了持久的損傷。

As well as its impact on health, the epidemic caused radical disruption to everyday life for Athenians. According to Thucydides, “the bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets.” Corpses piled up and, given the urgency of the situation, there was no time to perform even the most elementary rites when burying the dead. Several bodies would be cremated at the same time on the same pyre.

除了對健康的影響，這種流行病還對雅典人的日常生活造成了根本性的擾亂。根據(jù)修昔底德的說法，“垂死的人的尸體一個接一個地躺著，半死的生物在街上搖晃?！笔w堆積如山，考慮到情況的緊急，在埋葬死者時，人們甚至沒有時間進行最基本的儀式。幾具尸體被放在同一個火葬臺上同時火化。

Homer’s epic work The Iliad begins with an epidemic that forces the Greek leaders besieging Troy to consider withdrawing their troops. They consult the soothsayer Calchas to find out the cause of the sickness. Calchas tells them the affliction has been sent by Apollo as punishment for an offense committed by Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks.

荷馬史詩《伊利亞特》以一場瘟疫開始，這場瘟疫迫使圍攻特洛伊城的希臘領導人考慮撤軍。他們向占卜師卡爾卡斯請教，想找出這種病的原因?？柨ㄋ垢嬖V他們，這種痛苦是阿波羅送給他們的，作為對希臘領袖阿伽門農所犯罪行的懲罰。

Agamemnon has seized Chryseis, the daughter of a Trojan priest of Apollo, as a war prize and refuses to ransom her back to her father. To end the epidemic, Agamemnon reluctantly returns Chryseis but then takes Briseis, the war prize of Greek hero Achilles, as a replacement. Agamemnon’s petty, short-sighted decision sends Achilles into a rage and sets in motion the great epic’s dramatic events.

阿伽門農扣押了特洛伊祭司阿波羅的女兒克里賽斯作為戰(zhàn)爭的戰(zhàn)利品，并拒絕了將她贖回給她的父親的請求。為了結束這場瘟疫，阿伽門農不情愿地將克里賽伊斯帶了回來，但隨后又將希臘英雄阿喀琉斯的戰(zhàn)利品布里塞伊斯取而代之。阿伽門農這個狹隘而短視的決定讓阿喀琉斯暴跳如雷，從而觸發(fā)了偉大史詩中的戲劇性事件。

Civil unrest

內亂

The plague had a radical effect on Athenian society. Traditional hierarchies were turned upside down: Wealthy citizens might see their livelihoods destroyed from one day to the next, while poor ones might get rich by appropriating a dead man’s assets. Thucydides describes how moral conventions were abandoned and people tended to live each day as if it were their last: “[A]s the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of them, became utterly careless of everything, whether sacred or profane.” Nobody feared justice, as death by plague seemed more imminent than any pending court case.

瘟疫對雅典社會產生了根本性的影響。傳統(tǒng)的等級制度被顛覆了:富人的生計可能一天比一天被毀，而窮人還可能通過盜用死者的資產而變得富有。修昔底德描述了道德習俗在疫情中是如何被拋棄的，人們傾向于把每一天都當作生命的最后一天來過:“如果災難越過了所有的界限，人們對未來一無所知時，就會變得完全不在乎一切，無論是神圣的還是褻瀆的?！睕]有人害怕正義，因為死于瘟疫似乎比任何懸而未決的法庭案件更迫在眉睫。
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Spiritual concerns loomed large as well. Many believed something had angered the gods, who unleashed the disease as punishment. According to Thucydides, the elders spoke of an ancient oracle that had predicted a great epidemic would ensue after a “Dorian war”; the Spartans were Dorians, descendants of an ancient people who had settled in the Peloponnese. It was also rumored that the Spartans had consulted the oracle at Delphi about the outcome of the war; through prophecy, the god Apollo had promised his support to Sparta. The Athenians themselves sought counsel of the gods and sent emissaries to Delphi and other sanctuaries for divine guidance on the epidemic.

人們精神方面出現(xiàn)的問題也很突出。許多人認為是他們激怒了諸神，所以諸神釋放了這種疾病作為懲罰。據(jù)修昔底德說，長老們提到一個古老的神諭，預言一場“多里安戰(zhàn)爭”之后將會爆發(fā)一場大流行病; 而斯巴達人就是多里安人，是定居在伯羅奔尼撒半島的一個古老民族的后裔。也有傳聞說斯巴達人曾在德爾斐就戰(zhàn)爭的結果咨詢過神諭; 通過預言，阿波羅神已經承諾支持斯巴達。雅典人自己也尋求神的建議，并派使者到德爾斐和其他避難所尋求神的指導。
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Stone columns on a hill
Left: As an epidemic ravaged the city, Athens looked to the gods for help and sent delegations to the oracle in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The colonnade standing at the site today dates to the fourth century B.C.

圖：當瘟疫肆虐雅典時，雅典人向眾神尋求幫助，并派代表團前往德爾斐的阿波羅神廟尋求神諭。矗立在遺址上的柱廊可以追溯到公元前4世紀

A stone statue of a seated robed woman
Right: This undated statue depicts the healing goddess Hygieia, whose cult grew during the plague of Athens.

圖:這尊未注明日期的雕像描繪的是治療女神Hygieia，人們對她的崇拜在雅典瘟疫期間滋長。

Overwhelmed by the impact of the plague on their loved ones and on their way of life, Athenians began to turn against their leader, Pericles. While the move may have seemed practical at the time, with hindsight, his war strategy of encouraging the population to shelter from Sparta’s attacks within Athens’s city walls had worsened the sanitary conditions in the city. As Thucydides records:

瘟疫對人們的親人和生活方式的影響使雅典人不堪重負，他們開始反對他們的領袖伯里克利。雖然伯里克利封城的這一舉動在當時看來是可行的，但事后看來，他鼓勵民眾在雅典城墻內躲避斯巴達的攻擊的戰(zhàn)爭策略，卻惡化了雅典的衛(wèi)生條件。據(jù)修昔底德記錄:

An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the country into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals. As there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without restraint.

人們從農村涌入城市的行為加劇了現(xiàn)有的災難，新來者尤其感覺得到這一點。由于沒有多余的房子接待他們，他們不得不在一年中炎熱的季節(jié)里住在令人窒息的小屋里，死亡在這些地方更加肆無忌憚地蔓延。

Pericles’ political rivals went further, accusing him of calling down the misfortune upon them through his determined support for the war. After more than a decade of often adoring support, Athens turned against Pericles: A heavy fine was levied against him, and he was not reelected as official strategist.

伯里克利的政治對手則更進一步指責伯里克利通過堅決支持戰(zhàn)爭來讓自己國家遭受不幸。伯里克利的政治對手在得到了十多年的支持之后，開始領導雅典人民轉而反對伯里克利，于是伯里克利被處以重罰，此后，他就退出了雅典官方戰(zhàn)略家的舞臺。

Having been thrown out of office for mishandling the epidemic, Pericles would then suffer the ravages of the disease firsthand. According to the historian Plutarch, Pericles’ eldest son, Xanthippus, who had a rocky relationship with his father, succumbed to the plague, as did Pericles’ sister shortly after. His second son, Paralus, also fell ill and died, a tragedy that ended up breaking the legendary self-control of Pericles, who died from the plague himself in fall 429 B.C.

由于對疫情處理不當，伯里克利被趕下臺，他將直接遭受疫情的蹂躪。根據(jù)歷史學家普魯塔克的說法，伯里克利的長子贊提普斯與他的父親關系不穩(wěn)定，不久之后也死于瘟疫，伯里克利的妹妹也是如此。他的第二個兒子帕拉烏斯后來也生病去世了，這一系列的悲劇最終打倒了傳奇的伯里克利，他自己在公元前429年秋天死于瘟疫。

The epidemic greatly weakened Athens and brought an end to its Golden Age. By the time the plague ended around 425 B.C., it is estimated that nearly a third of the city’s people died, with between 75,000 to 100,000 lives lost. Sparta and Athens would strike a truce around 421 B.C. Sparta would ultimately win the Peloponnesian War, destroying the Athenian fleet at sea in 405.

這場瘟疫極大地削弱了雅典，并結束了它的黃金時代。據(jù)估計，瘟疫在公元前425年左右結束時，將近三分之一的城市人口死亡，7.5-10萬人喪生。斯巴達和雅典在公元前421年左右達成休戰(zhàn)，斯巴達最終贏得了伯羅奔尼撒戰(zhàn)爭，在405年摧毀了雅典的海上艦隊。

Mystery malady

神秘的疾病

Historians have still not identified the epidemic’s exact source. Because of Thucydides’ use of the word “plague,” some have hypothesized that it was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, cause of the Black Death in the 14th century. However, close reading of Thucydides shows no mention of the Black Death’s most notorious symptoms: the “buboes,” the swollen lymph nodes that blackened and sometimes burst.

歷史學家們直到現(xiàn)在仍未確定疫情的確切來源。由于修昔底德使用了“瘟疫”這個詞，一些人猜測它是源于14世紀引起黑死病的鼠疫的爆發(fā)。然而，人們仔細閱讀了修昔底德的筆記，發(fā)現(xiàn)筆記種卻沒有提到黑死病最臭名昭著的癥狀:“淋巴結腫大”，淋巴結變黑，有時會破裂。

Over time, scholars have proposed several culprits, bacterial and viral, including typhus, cholera, influenza, smallpox, and measles. As research tools have become more sophisticated, new theories have emerged.

隨著時間的推移，學者們提出了幾種罪魁禍首——細菌和病毒，包括斑疹傷寒、霍亂、流感、天花和麻疹。隨著研究工具變得越來越復雜，新的理論也出現(xiàn)了。

In 1994 a mass grave dating to 430-420 B.C. was identified. Within it were 150 bodies that appeared to have been hastily buried. A team of researchers led by Manolis J. Papagrigorakis analyzed DNA from the dental pulp of three individuals. Publishing their results in 2006, they found the presence of a pathogen with a 93 percent similarity to typhoid fever. Other scholars, however, have challenged the theory that the plague was caused by that illness because typhoid was common at the time. Thucydides’ account is of an ailment the likes of which had never been seen before in ancient Greece, a so-called virgin soil epidemic.

1994年，人們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個公元前430-420年的集體墳墓。里面有150具似乎是匆忙下葬的尸體。由Manolis J. Papagrigorakis領導的研究小組分析了其中三個人的牙髓DNA。他們在2006年發(fā)表了他們的研究結果，發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種病原體的存在，與傷寒有93%的相似性。然而，其他學者對這場瘟疫是由傷寒引起的理論提出了質疑，因為當時傷寒很常見。修昔底德的敘述中提到了一種在古希臘從未見過的疾病，一種所謂的荒地流行病。

Many of Thucydides’ symptoms match those of Ebola. Unlike illnesses of bacterial origin (like typhoid or bubonic plague), finding genetic evidence of viruses like Ebola or measles is more challenging. To identify them, geneticists must study RNA, which is more unstable than DNA and degrades more easily over time. Finding a viable sample from fifth-century B.C. Athens is very unlikely, so if the plague of Athens was caused by a virus, its precise identity will remain a mystery for now.

修昔底德的筆記中記錄的許多癥狀與埃博拉病毒的癥狀相似。與研究細菌來源的疾病(如傷寒或黑死病)不同，找到埃博拉或麻疹等病毒的基因證據(jù)更具挑戰(zhàn)性。為了識別它們，遺傳學家必須研究RNA，它比DNA更不穩(wěn)定，更容易隨著時間的推移而降解。所以要從公元前5世紀的雅典找到一個可行的樣本是非常不可能的。因此，如果雅典的瘟疫是由一種病毒引起的，那么病毒的確切身份目前仍是一個謎。