Antonio CORTIJO

War and Disease. Between Pericles´s Funeral Oration and the plague of Athens

Guerra y enfermedad. Entre el Discurso fúnebre de Pericles y la plaga de Atenas

Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

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Pericles’s Funeral Oration in 431 BC praises Athens’s values (dialogue, citizens’ participation, democracy) against Spartan oligarchy during the Peloponnesian War. Only a few months after the oration was delivered, a terrible plague decimated Athenian democracy and ended Pericles’s life.