IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB349529003

Pandemics in the Ancient Mediterranean World (2023)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 114
Issue: S1
Pages: S288-S312

URL: https://isiscb.org/special-issue-on-pandemics/essay.html?essayID=13

DOI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/726988

Publication Date: 2023
Edition Details: IsisCB Special Issue: Bibliographic Essays on the History of Pandemics
Language: English

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

This essay outlines the kinds of evidence available (and not available) for studies of ancient Mediterranean pandemics, the scholarship on the subject so far, and some reflections on the relationship between the two. The focus is on the three largescale epidemic episodes that have attracted the most scholarly attention: the “Plague of Athens” in the fifth century BCE; the “Antonine Plague,” which spread across the Roman Empire in the late second century CE; and the “Justinianic Plague,” which first engulfed the Mediterranean in the sixth century CE. All present considerable evidential challenges. There are traditional resources and the rich remains of ancient medical writings, but we also now have at our disposal new archaeological and genetic evidence. The research questions on these pandemics must be expanded beyond asking what disease was implicated and what political and economic impact its Mediterranean outbreaks had, sometimes within quite a restricted geographical area. Interdisciplinary research will be required to answer these wider enquiries fully. All the salient disciplines need to be involved, with due attention to their methodologies, if the field is to move forward and make the most of its resources.

...More

Included in

Article Weldon, Stephen P.; Sankaran, Neeraja (2023) Scholarship in the Time of COVID-19: An Introduction to the IsisCB Special Issue on Pandemics. Isis Bibliography of the History of Science (pp. 1-5). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB349529003/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Nükhet Varlık; (2023)
Plague in the Mediterranean and Islamicate World (/isis/citation/CBB072233079/)

Book Lavan, Luke; Zanini, Enrico; Sarantis, Alexander Constantine; (2007)
Technology in Transition: A.D. 300--650 (/isis/citation/CBB000830818/)

Article Merle Eisenberg; Lee Mordechai; (2020)
The Justinianic Plague and Global Pandemics: The Making of the Plague Concept (/isis/citation/CBB917568301/)

Book Marie-Hélène Marganne; Antonio Ricciardetto; (2017)
En marge du Serment hippocratique. Contrats et serments dans le monde gréco-romain. (/isis/citation/CBB468049054/)

Book Claudius Aelianus; (2020)
Vom Wesen der Tiere. Bücher I–VII (/isis/citation/CBB460289858/)

Article Daniel Bertoni; (2017)
Geometry and Genre in Columella (/isis/citation/CBB174453623/)

Book Lester K. Little; (2008)
Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750 (/isis/citation/CBB393953172/)

Article Mark Honigsbaum; (2023)
The “Spanish” Flu and the Pandemic Imaginary (/isis/citation/CBB294752241/)

Article Dora Vargha; Imogen Wilkins; (2023)
Vaccination and Pandemics (/isis/citation/CBB227322509/)

Article Monica Green; (2021)
The Great Dying: The Epidemiological and Medical Implications of Old and New World Encounters in the Pre- and Post-Contact Eras (/isis/citation/CBB067333442/)

Article Andrea Rodríguez-Antón; Antonio César González-García; Juan Antonio Belmonte; (2018)
Astronomy in Roman Urbanism: A Statistical Analysis of the Orientation of Roman Towns in the Iberian Peninsula (/isis/citation/CBB728180119/)

Thesis Kyle Grothoff; (2016)
Astrology in Augustan Rome: A Cultural History (/isis/citation/CBB334513367/)

Thesis Brent Arehart; (2022)
Sexual Medicine in the Roman Empire (/isis/citation/CBB612482789/)

Book Christian Laes; (2018)
Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World: A Social and Cultural History (/isis/citation/CBB374372359/)

Book Liba Taub; (2020)
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science (/isis/citation/CBB804529002/)

Article José Ragas; (2023)
History of Pandemics in Latin America (/isis/citation/CBB254020371/)

Article Maria Conforti; (2023)
History of Epidemics: A Bibliographical Essay on Secondary Sources in Italian and on Italy (/isis/citation/CBB899693707/)

Article Barbara C. Canavan; (2023)
Historical Literature Related to Zoonoses and Pandemics (/isis/citation/CBB487699842/)

Article James Stark; (2023)
Making Microbes: Theorizing the Invisible in Historical Scholarship (/isis/citation/CBB108538466/)

Article Weldon, Stephen P.; Sankaran, Neeraja; (2023)
Scholarship in the Time of COVID-19: An Introduction to the IsisCB Special Issue on Pandemics (/isis/citation/CBB256293342/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}