War and Disease. Between Pericles´s Funeral Oration and the plague of Athens
Antonio CORTIJO
Original title: 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
Keywords: Athens, Funeral Oration, Plague, Thucydides, War.
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.