THE MOST LETHAL EPIDEMICS IN HISTORY

Throughout history, as humans spread and occupied our planet, many infectious diseases emerged. From the time of Ancient Greece to the present, epidemics have resulted in about one billion deaths worldwide. Some of the most devastating infectious diseases are: TYPHUS, INFLUENZA, SMALLPOX, PLAGUE, MEASLES, YELLOW FEVER, HEPATITIS, DENGUE FEVER, CHOLERA, ENCEPHALITIS, POLIOMYELITIS, MALARIA, AIDS, MENINGITIS, EBOLA, SARS, PERTUSSIS, PNEUMONIA AND TUBERCULOSIS, Currently, the COVID-19, one of the viruses in the Coronavirus family, is sweeping throughout the world spreading fear, panic and death, it is important to look back at the five most lethal epidemics in history, based on the total number of deaths relative to the population at the time.

1. PLAGUE OF ATHENS (429-426 B.C.)

When the epidemic erupted, the Peloponesian war was being waged in Greece between Sparta and Athens, the latter under the leadership of the prominent Athenian statesman, orator and brilliant general Pericles. It is generally believed that the disease originated in Ethiopia and entered Athens on merchant ships through the harbour of Piraeus, Athens, which was the only source of food and supplies from overseas. The disease became a highly contagious epidemic, most likely of typhus, typhoid fever or viral hemorrhagic. According to the Greek historian Thucydides, the victims of the disease suddenly developed high fever, headache and inflammation, with red eyes, a bleeding throat and tongue, diarrhea and the vomiting of blood. Some victims also developed gangrene at the tips of the fingers and toes. Most of the sick died in seven days. It is estimated that the plague killed 25% of the Athenian troops and 75,000 to 100,000 Athenians, or one-third of the Athenian population. Among the people who died were Pericles, his wife, and his two sons. Although Thucydides contracted the plague, he managed to survive. The plague also spread to the eastern Mediterranean, but to a less degree. Scholars believe that because the Athenians were losing the war, they were forced to retreat and the overcrowding in the City contributed to the spreading of the disease. The plague created fear, panic and chaos in the city. Athenians became discontent, lost faith in freedom and democracy and started to disobey the law, which was one of the main reasons for the decline and collapse of the golden age of Pericles

PLAGUE OF ATHENS (429-426 B.C.)

2. ANTONINE PLAGUE (165-180 A.D.)

The Antonine Plague (named after the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), that severely affected the Roman Empire, erupted in 165 A.D., when Roman power was at its peak throughout the Mediterranean world. The Greek physician Galen describes the disease as being of long duration, with fever, diarrhea, pharyngitis, and pustules of fluid and pus on the skin. It may have been smallpox, brought to Rome from China via merchant ships and by Roman troops returning from campaigns in the near East. The Roman historian Dio Cassius reports that there were up to 2,000 deaths a day in Rome, 25% of those who were infected. The plague also devastated the Roman army. It is estimated that between 60-70 million people, or 25% to 75% of the total population of the Empire, perished. Even the Emperor Antonine was infected and died. The plague had drastic social and political effects throughout the Roman Empire. It brought chaos and political and economic instability. The large number of deaths reduced the workforce, resulting in lower production of goods and services, and reduced trade and hence lower tax revenue for the government. The Romans also experienced civil wars and invasions by barbarians. People left their urban centres believing that they were cursed. Some were looking for answers in mystical religious and magic places, but the majority turned to Christianity which provided them with a meaning for life in times of crisis. Christianity also promised salvation in the afterlife, a solace in times of death and tragedy.

                 ANTONINE PLAGUE (165-180 A.D.)

3. JUSTINIAN PLAGUE (541-542 A.D.)

The Justinian plague occurred from 541-542 A.D. in the Byzantine Empire, during the rule of the Roman Emperor Justinian the First. The plague also afflicted the Sasanian Empire and port cities around the Mediterranean Sea. The Byzantine Empire, sometimes known as the Eastern Roman Empire because it was the eastern half of the Roman Empire, was mainly Greek-speaking. Its capital city was Constantinople. In 541 A.D., trade was flourishing in the Empire, and merchant ships carrying grain from Egypt to Constantinople harboured rats carrying fleas infected with the disease, thus spreading it throughout the Empire. Even the emperor Justinian contracted the plague, but survived. The Greek Byzantine scholar and historian Procopious writes in his history that the victim suffered from fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes under the armpits and behind the ears, abdominal and groin pain and gangrene. A number of the deceased fell into a coma for days before death and others died immediately on becoming ill. Dead bodies were left stacked in the open since there was no room to bury them and the entire city of Constantinople smelled like dead flesh. The plague decimated Constantinople and reached a point when about 5,000 people died daily. The total loss of life in the City was 40% and the total death toll in the Empire was approximately 25 million people. Gradually the plague spread to Europe, Asia, North Africa and Arabia and resulted in 30 to 50 million deaths, which accounted for about half of Europe’s population at the time. The decimation of the population caused high labour shortages, which had a tremendous impact on the military and economic power of the Byzantine Empire and resulted in its decline.The high mortality rate of the plague had a profoundly negative impact on the world at the time.

                 JUSTINIAN PLAGUE (541-542 A.D.)

4. BLACK DEATH (1347-1351 A.D.)

In the middle of the 14th century, and specifically in 1348, a very devastating global pandemic known as the Black Plague spread throughout Asia, North Africa and Europe. The disease arrived in Italy on rat infected ships coming from Asia to the Black Sea via Sicily. Most of the sailors on the ships were already dead upon arrival. Over the next five years the plague spread throughout Europe, resulting in 25 million deaths, one-third of Europe’s population. Medical knowledge had stagnated during the Middle Ages (or medieval period), mainly because the Church was very influential at the time and suppressed science and technological development. The Church also considered cats evil creatures and had ordered that all cats, that could have killed the rats, be eliminated. In parts of Europe the plague killed 2000 people a day, and in many crowded European cities, such as Paris, Florence, Hamburg and London, half or more of the population died. The Church was hard-hit because priests, monks and nuns cared for the diseased and became ill themselves. The total number of deaths in Europe, Asia and North Africa surpassed 200 million. In the Middle East, especially in Iran, Iraq and Syria, over one third of the population died, and 40% of Egypt’s population. The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, who resided in Florence at the time and lived through the plague, writes that Infected fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans spread the plague and the victim developed swelling, tumors on the neck, armpits or groin and most died within a week. Others were infected by breathing the exhaled air of the diseased and affected their respiratory system and blood. The Black Death pandemic was characterized by swelling, developing tumors, darkening the body, bleeding under the skin and gangrene of the fingers, toes, and nose. It is believed that the plague finally ended through the use of quarantine. At the end of the pandemic, the huge decline in population in Europe brought severe labour shortages and skyrocketing wages, and it took a long time for the economies to recover. It took Europe nearly 200 years to regain the same population that had existed before the disease.

                  BLACK DEATH (1347-1351 A.D.)

5.THE  SPANISH INFLUENZA (1918-1920 A.D.)

The influenza pandemic of 1918, was the most severe in recent history. Although the exact origin of this pandemic is unknown, it is believed to have been of avian origin. It was given the name Spanish Influenza (Flu) because it was first reported in Spain. Spain had not taken part in the First World War and the Spanish media were therefore not censored, and were free to report the news. The flu first appeared in Europe, America and parts of Asia and gradually spread worldwide. One theory is that the flu originated in China, and came into Europe when the British and French governments recruited Chinese workers as laborers to perform manual work while their own citizens were engaged in the War. The disease spread rapidly and governments ordered the closure of public places, schools, libraries, theatres, churches and other places that led to public gatherings. People were obligated to wear masks, avoid close contact with each other and stay indoors. The disease was an unusually lethal influenza, affecting all ages.The skin of the victim turned blue and the lungs filled with fluid leading to suffocation. Victims died within hours or days after having developed symptoms of the flu, and 25 million people died during the first 25 weeks of the outbreak. It is estimated that 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population, were infected with the virus, and up to 100 million died worldwide. These are approximate numbers since no medical records were reported in many places. The pandemic lasted for two years. It is considered the deadliest pandemic in human history, and was probably worsened by the lack of nutrition and the appalling conditions of the soldiers and citizens during and after World War One. More American soldiers died of the Spanish flu than were killed in the War. The flu ended by the autumn of 1920. The economic repercussions were devastating. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and consumption per Capita of the average country (adjusted for inflation) were reduced by between 6 to 8%., and in financial markets real stock returns (adjusted for inflation) were -26%.

              THE  SPANISH INFLUENZA (1918-1920 A.D.)

THE FIRST WAVE OF GREEK IMMIGRATION

During the first wave of emigration, Greeks immigrated mainly to the United States.

Previously, between 1855 and 1890, immigrants to the United States were mainly from England, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. They were fleeing poverty and political and religious persecution, and were looking for personal freedom and a better life.

In the last two decades of the 19th century, immigrants from other countries, in particular Italy and Greece, started immigrating to the United States. A small number of Greeks had gone to the United States after the 1821 War of Independence against the Ottomans. But they didn’t start immigrating in larger numbers until the 1880s and 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, up until the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918). In 1892 the U.S. government opened an immigration centre on Ellis Island in New York Harbour to process the new immigrants who were starting to arrive in droves.

The early immigrants arrived on steamships. They travelled at their own risk, since all immigration processing was done in the U.S.A. at the port of arrival, and there was no guarantee they would be approved for admission. First and second-class passengers were considered affluent and did not undergo inspection at the Ellis Island Immigration Centre. They underwent only a cursory inspection aboard the ship and were free to enter the country. However, if they had medical or legal issues, they would be sent to Ellis Island for a thorough inspection. The third- class passengers travelled in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the hull of the ship, and when the ship anchored in the Hudson River at New York, they often waited for days on board ship before they were transferred by ferry to Ellis Island to undergo a legal and medical examination. It was said that the medical doctor conducted a mere “six second physical” to decide whether to admit a passenger into the country or deport him/her back home. The immigration inspection, however, took 3 to 5 hours. Although Ellis Island had the reputation of an “Island of Tears”, most immigrants were granted entry. Usually the only reasons for deportation were if a passenger had a contagious disease, in particular tuberculosis, or was deemed likely to become a public charge.

In 1897, a fire on Ellis Island burned down the Immigration Centre, and all the immigration records from the period between 1855 and 1897 were destroyed. A new building was constructed, and opened on December 17, 1900, to receive and process new immigrants. It is recorded that in 1907 more than 1.25 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island Immigration Office, a record that was not broken again for the next 80 years. The records state that from its opening in 1892 until 1954, over 12 million immigrants entered the United States through the Ellis Island port.

The first Greek immigrants were mainly men and were often considered suspect by the authorities and the established communities in the United States.

Greek men arriving at Ellis Island in New York Harbour in 1911

Between 1880 and 1920, the majority of Greek immigrants to the U.S.A. were young men whose intention was to work in order to earn some money and then return back home. In the early 20th century, about 30 percent of the Greeks did return to Greece permanently. But many remained in the United States. Though some got married, many of them never did. Several of these unmarried Greek men returned to Greece 20-30 years later, after the Second World War, to find a wife to take back with them to America and to start a family.

Life in America was hard for the early immigrants. They were labourers, and winters were harsh. They worked long hours for low wages, and often had to endure verbal and physical abuse. Many of the first Greek immigrants started out as busboys, shoeshine boys, peddlers and fruit and vegetable merchants. They later opened their own restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, shoeshine parlours, barber shops, and tailor shops. A lot of the early immigrants went to work in textile mills and shoe factories in New York, Pennsylvania, New England and other Northeastern States.

In the decade before the First World War, some of the immigrants started moving further West to Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah to work in the coal and copper mines or in the construction of roads and railroads. They were attracted to the heavy industry of the Mid- Western States of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Florida was also a popular destination for the early 20th century Greek immigrants because of its warm climate. Many Greeks from the Islands of Aegina and Hydra, and later Kalymno, Halki and Symi settled in Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they developed the sponge industry. Still others went all the way to California.

Although Greek immigrants arrived in America expecting to find freedom and social justice, they faced many problems. Before the First World War, there was increasing opposition to Greek immigration. Greeks, along with Catholics and Jews, were resented and discriminated against. Because they spoke little or no English, and because they were Orthodox Christians, Greeks were viewed with suspicion by the earlier, largely Protestant settlers who had come from Northern and Western Europe and had already established their own communities and considered themselves the true Americans.

In Chicago, where many Greeks had settled, there was great resistance to them selling food on the streets from push carts, and the city passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of food on the streets. In Idaho, Greeks were banned from public parks and certain neighbourhoods. In Kansas City, Missouri, the Greeks were not allowed to go into barber shops, and were called “debos”, like the Italians. In the West, Greeks were banned from many restaurants: signs in windows assured patrons that the restaurant was pure American, with “No Rats. No Greeks”. Help-Wanted signs in store windows advised: “No Greeks need apply”. In Rhode Island there was opposition to Greek lobster fishermen because the local merchants resented the competition. In many places Greek businesses were targeted just for jeopardizing the businesses of established local merchants.

There were a number of anti-Greek riots. In 1909, in South Omaha, Nebraska, an altercation between a Greek and the police incited riots. Over 3000 Greeks were ordered to leave, and their properties were looted and burned. In 1912 there was an uprising in Washington State against Greek lumbermen in Grays Harbour, and hundreds were expelled from the town. In 1916, an Arizona labour journal accused Greek businesses of imperiling the future of local merchants, informing readers that Greeks were a menace to them. In 1917, an anti-Greek riot erupted

in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the largely Mormon population deemed the Greeks ignorant and dangerous, unfit for citizenship.

The growing resistance to the new immigrants from the established communities led to changes in U.S. immigration policy after WWI. It became more difficult for immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe to enter the United States. There was also fear of the Italian Mafia and the growing fear of Communism, and immigrants from Southern Europe were suspect. In 1921, Quota Laws were enforced, and in 1924 the National Origins Act was instigated. These imposed restrictions on the number of Greeks and other non-Western European immigrants allowed to enter the United States. After 1924 only 100 Greeks per year were allowed entry. The immigration procedure was also changed. American Consulates were set up in many countries to screen applicants in their countries of origin. It therefore became much more difficult for Greeks to immigrate to the United States for the next 25 years.

In response to prejudice, on July 26, 1922, Greek immigrants founded the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA). Its initial mission was to help Greek immigrants assimilate into American society, to promote philanthropy and education, and to preserve the Hellenic Identity of the Greek immigrants.

Despite all the difficulties the first Greek immigrants faced in the United States, they were successful because of their perseverance and hard work, their Chrisitan Orthodox faith, and their commitment to family and education. Their offspring have been successful in many fields: law, medicine, dentistry, science and technology, academia, business, real estate, the food industry, sports, journalism, the fashion industry, the entertainment industry, the military, and in politics at all levels of the U.S. government.

THE PARTHENON MARBLES

I firmly believe that it is high time for the British Government to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece to be placed in their proper place in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. The large number of missing sculptures in the Museum’s reconstruction of the magnificent Parthenon frieze is dramatically noticeable, and a sad reminder of all the invasions, occupations and theft that robbed Greece of her glorious past. It would be a virtuous gesture by England, a nation that prides herself on being noble and honourable, to return the Parthenon Marbles to their rightful home in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens.

During the period 1453-1832, Greece was occupied by the Muslim Ottoman Turks as part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1801, the British nobleman, Lord Elgin, who was a British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, ordered that about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon be removed and taken to England, along with sculptures from the Propylaea and Erechtheion in Athens. The Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, were taken by sea to England. In 1816, Lord Elgin sold them to the British government to be placed in London’s British Museum, where they have been on display ever since. There is not any doubt that Lord Elgin stole the artifacts, which makes their sale to the British government illegitimate, and they should be returned to Greece.

The remaining Parthenon Marbles that were not removed by Elgin are displayed in the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and facilities for the protection and preservation of exhibits, receiving an honorary award for architecture from the American Institute of Architects. The Greek government and many prominent people and international organizations have petitioned numerous times for the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. They include the following: 

ACADEMICS: Michael Dummett, David Lowenthal, John Gould, and Peter Levi.

 ACTORS & ACTRESSES: Melina Mercouri, George Cloony, Joanna Lumley, Matthew Damon, Judi Dench, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Juliet Stevenson, Julie Christie, Janet Suzman, Frances De La Tour, Sean Connery, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Peter Ustinov, and Trevor Nunn. 

JOURNALISTS: Neal Ascherson, Jonathan Dimbleby, Isabel Hilton, Peter Tory, Simon Jenkins, the BBC TV host Steven Fry and American author Christopher Hitchens. 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: The Australian, British, Swiss committees, UNESCO, and the President Xi Jinping of China.

POLLS: In England a substantial majority of the British people are also in favour of returning the Marbles to Greece.