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Pandemics and disease in the ancient Mediterranean

Module description

This module seeks to introduce you to the study of ancient diseases and epidemics. You will explore questions such as how was disease grappled with in the ancient world? How was illness conceived and explained? Were epidemics understood and responded to differently from individual diseases? Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have a notion of mental illness? And distinct ideas about male and female health? What can modern scientific techniques reveal about the ancient pathological landscape and about ancient plagues specifically? What impact did pandemics have on ancient economies and society, on ideas and beliefs? Can we access ancient experiences of pestilence and sickness? You will explore all these questions from a range of angles and using diverse evidence.    

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to:

• Introduce you to the study of ancient diseases and epidemics, to the different methodologies and approaches that can be adopted and the ways they interrelate.
• Examine in detail a wide range of texts and material which provides evidence about ancient pandemics and disease and the responses to them.
• Consider modern debates about historical plagues and sickness in their wider historiographical contexts.  
• Offer you the opportunity to develop skills in independent research and analysis.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate knowledge of a wide range of sources and evidence relating to ancient pandemics and disease and show advanced critical skills in analysing and discussing their significance.
• 2. Identify, explain and engage critically with the various theoretical approaches to ancient pandemics and disease.
• 3. Demonstrate awareness of the extent to which interpretations of ancient material relating to plagues and illness are shaped by changing current concerns.
• 4. Reflect on the ways that scientific techniques and approaches from the humanities relate in the study of subjects such as disease and pandemics.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate sophisticated critical and analytical skills which can be applied to a wider range of textual and other evidence from ancient and modern contexts.
• 6. Demonstrate nuanced awareness of historical and cultural differences, and an ability to interpret the ideas and assumptions of unfamiliar societies.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate sophisticated skills in independent research and the development of research questions.
• 8. Demonstrate advanced skills in the construction, organisation and presentation of interpretations and arguments, both written and verbal.
• 9. Demonstrate the ability to work as part of a group, and to engage constructively in debate and discussion.

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that the module will outline the broad conceptual, practical and historical landscape of disease in the ancient Mediterranean, exploring how illness was described and understood in medical and literary texts, and what archaeological evidence reveals about the presence (and absence) of various ailments, epidemics and conditions.

It will then cover some or all of the following topics, which include scope for students to focus on specific themes and case studies depending on their particular interests:

• Ancient approaches to mental illness.
• Historical pandemics, from the ‘plague of Athens’ to the ‘plague of Justinian’.
• ‘Sexual diseases’ in antiquity, and debates about ‘diseases of women’.
• Disease and disability in the ancient world.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Flemming, Rebecca, ‘(The wrong kind of) Gonorrhea in Antiquity’, in Simon Szreter (ed.), The Hidden Affliction: Sexually Transmitted Infections and Infertility in History (Rochester, NY, University of Rochester Press, 2019), 43-67.
• Gardner, Hunter H. Pestilence and the Body Politic in Latin Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).
• Grmek, Mirko D., Diseases in the Ancient Greek World. translated by Mireille Muellner and
• Leonard Muellner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
• Harper, Kyle, The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017).
• Harris, W.V. (ed.), Mental Disorders in the Classical World (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
• Little, Lester K. (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
• Mitchell-Boyask, Robin, Plague and the Athenian Imagination: Drama, History and the Cult
• of Asclepius (Cambridge: CUP, 2007).
• Nutton, Vivian, Ancient Medicine, 2nd edn (London:: Routledge, 2013).

Key words search

Classics, Ancient History, Ancient Mediterranean, disease, pandemics, plague, disability