The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

230
EVAGRIUS
men without some experience of the disease. And whereas some cities
were stricken to such an extent that they were completely emptied of
inhabitants, there were parts where the misfortune touched more lightly
and moved on. And neither did it strike according to a ¢xed interval,
nor having struck did it depart in the same manner: but it took hold of
some places at the beginning of winter, others while spring was in full
swing, others in the summer time, and in some places even when
autumn was advancing. 79 And there were places where it a¡ected one
part of the city but kept clear of the other parts, and often one could see
in a city that was not diseased certain households that were comprehensively
destroyed. And there are places where, although one or two households
were destroyed, the rest of the city has remained una¡ected; but as
we have recognized from precise investigation, the households which
remained una¡ected have been the only ones to su¡er in the following
year. 80 But what is more extraordinary than everything is that if it
happened that inhabitants of a¥icted cities were living somewhere else
where the misfortune had not struck, those people alone caught the
especially in the reactions of the stricken population, might creep into the tradition. The
Athenian plague, however, was not bubonic (and indeed its identity is much disputed).
Procopius (Wars ii.22.6) says that the plague began in Pelusium in Egypt. Allen, Evagrius
190, suggests that the connection with Ethiopia re£ects traditional prejudice about the
origins of diseases, but this may be too sceptical; Zinsser, Rats 145, whom Allen cites in
support, merely refers to ‘a sort of ancient and traditional suspicion’, without documentation.
As parallels for a southern origin, Dio lxxvi.13.1 records that in 200 Septimius Severus
was prevented from crossing from Egypt to Ethiopia by plague; Zonaras xii.21 (vol. II.
590:9^13) describes a plague which spread from Ethiopia to the whole empire in the 250s.
For discussion of Central/East Africa as one of the major natural reservoirs of plague in the
ancient world, and of the factors which contributed to its eruption in the 540s, see Keys,
Catastrophe ch. 2.
There is a large literature on the sixth-century plague: in addition to Conrad, ‘Plague’ and
Keys, Catastrophe, see Allen, ‘Plague’, Evagrius 190^4; Sallares, Ecology 263^71; Whitby,
‘Recruitment’ 93^9.
79 Evagrius may here be tacitly correcting Procopius, who said that the plague seemed
to move by ¢xed arrangement, and to remain for a speci¢ed time in each region (Wars
ii.22.7). The £ea which carries bubonic plague is most active in warm and humid conditions,
so that in the Mediterranean plague tends to be most virulent in summer (Sallares,
Ecology 270).
80 Cf. Procopius,Wars ii.22.8, for the plague returning to places which it had only lightly
touched ¢rst time round.