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.

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

Hippocrates 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

  1. ↑ Potter, C. W. (2002). "Foreword". Influenza. Elsevier Science. p. vii.
  2. ↑ Nelson, Kenrad E. (2001). Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory and Practice. Jones and Bartlett. p. 334.
  3. ↑ Hardman, Lizabeth (2011). Influenza Pandemics. Lucent Books. p. 8.
  4. 1 2 Hippocrates, Of the Epidemics, Book I
  5. ↑ Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 3-5
  6. ↑ Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 5-6


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