When
Friday, June 5, 2020
This is a Zoom presentation. Click here to register.
9:30 a.m. (Arizona time) via Zoom50 minutes plus Q&A
A Free Lecture by Dr. Irene Bald RomanoProfessor of Art History and AnthropologyCurator of Mediterranean Archaeologyat the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona
In this illustrated talk, Dr. Romano discusses two pandemics of the ancient world that are well-documented, both from literary sources and archaeological discoveries: the plague of Athens that struck during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C) and was a contributor to the downfall of the Athenian Empire; and the Antonine plague (165-180 A.D.), during the rule of the Antonine Emperors, that heralded the fall of the Roman Empire. The lives of these plagues are traced with attention to: their impact on Athens and Rome; the reliability of the evidence; the historian (Thucydides) and the physician (Galen) who chronicled them; and the lives of the powerful leaders of Athens (Pericles) and Rome (Marcus Aurelius) who had to manage these existential threats. The many parallels to our current pandemic are hard to ignore, including conspiracy theories about the origins of these plagues, wildly varying mortality counts, changes in funerary practices, and the responses of leaders and average citizens.
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Event Contact:Darlene Lizarragadfl@email.arizona.edu520.626.8381