Athumia and philanthrôpia. Social reactions to plagues in late antiquity and early Byzantine society.

Thucydides' description of the plague at Athens stands as a paradigm that influenced eyewitness accounts throughout Greek and Byzantine history. Christian authors in Late Antiquity use his dark picture as heathen background against which they highlight Christian virtues of charity and mercy. The descriptions of the Justinianic plague of AD 542 rely on Thucydides not only stylistically but also in substance, as the early Byzantine society reacts like the people of ancient Athens rather than early Christian communities.