Anno 362 B.C. The war of Sicily being ended by the death of Dionysius the greater, the Republic of Carthage sent a captain named Bostan as the governor of Mallorca, Minorca, Iberia, and Formentera, in order that he should negociate with the Saguntians, and draw them over to their side.
The city of Saguntum, now called Murviedro, was visited by an epidemic pestilence. There was a great scarcity of provisions, and many deaths occurred, even among the nobles. The people became sorrow-stricken and disheartened, as reported by the magistrates to their new governor. It may be inferred that the pestilence raged with severity, from its having affected the higher orders.
Annis 346 B.C. and 405 from the foundation of Rome, extraordinary inundations, with great damage to the cattle, fields, and buildings, occurred. All the cities along the coasts on the Mediterranean Sea suffered also from earthquakes; Saguntum, a principal city, having suffered the most. Annis 332, 296, and 291 B.C. Rome was again visited by pestilence, which was particularly fatal to breeding women and to breeding cattle. A similar visitation affected Rome anno 272 B.C.
Anno 237 B.C. the commotions of the elements in the shape of earthquakes, severe drought, with the want of sufficient food, caused great mortality among cattle and men in Spain, especially at Cadiz.
Anno 218 B.C. the toils of war and the forced marches of the Carthaginian armies on their route to besiege Saguntum, and the unflinching and brave defence by wearying out the assailants, (says Mariana,) caused great pestilence among them. There were also earthquakes and pestilence in several provinces of Spain, also great storms at sea, throwing on the land quantities of fish, some of which were unknown until this occurrence. There was also a fatal epizootic among the dogs and birds.
Anno 216 B.C. In the summer of this year a fatal pestilence began in the vicinity of Carthage. It was supposed that this putrid disease arose from the crowded state of all places, from the multitude of sailors and soldiers there at the time, the country being in a badly cultivated state, the scarcity and bad quality of provisions, and from the stagnant lake, which had always been viewed as a source of disease. For a considerable period it was limited to the place where it originated, but after a time other provinces became affected. Both rich and poor fell victims to this dire disease: some of the principal families suffered; and Hamilca, the wife of Hannibal, and their offspring, were among its numerous victims.
Anno 206 B.C. a vast pestilence, preceded by immense swarms of locusts, occurred in the land near Capua. The same historian, Livy, relates that the Roman and Rhodian fleets, anchored at Phaselis in the Gulf of Pamphylia in the midst of summer, and in an unwholesome situation, suffered from pestilential diseases,—especially the rowers, who were subjected to hard labour, and exposed to the burning rays of the sun. He continues, that violent pestilence ravaged all Italy annis 182 and 181 B.C. This continued for several years; severe drought for six months, and consequent dearth of corn happened, followed by terrible storms, pernicious seasons, and awful commotions of the elements, coldness, dampness, moisture and dryness, noxious vapours, and putrid exhalations. This extraordinary season was followed by a great pestilence among cattle and among the inhabitants of Rome, in the summer and autumn of the year 177 B.C. This pestilence continued for four years, from 177 to 173, during which period swarms of locusts deluged Apulia, as the Pontine provinces were covered the previous year. So destructive were their ravages, that Sicinius the prætor was commissioned with an army to drive them away!
“Pestilentia quæ priore anno ingruerat in boves, eo verteret in hominum morbos; qui inciderant haud facile septimum diem superabant: qui superaverant longinquo, maximæ quartanæ implacabantur, morbo. Servitia maxime moriebantur, eorum strages per omnes vias insepultorum erat. Ne liberorum quidem funeribus subficiebat. Cadavera intacta a canibus ac vulturibus tabes absumebat; satisque constabat, nec illo, nec priore anno in tanta strage boûm hominumque vulturiûm usquam visum.” The translation of this pithy passage conveys that the pestilence which first attacked cattle, fastened upon men,—those who survived the seventh day did so with great difficulty, and were subsequently afflicted by disease (or fever) of a quartan form. The poor and lower classes were those who suffered most, their dead carcases lying about the highways,—dogs and vultures left the carcases untouched which were consumed by corruption,—neither in this nor in a former year was there a vulture seen. From this graphic detail we may infer that the beasts of the field were first attacked, then mankind; that the disease underwent a sort of crisis on the seventh day, terminating either in death or chronic distemper, as we see to be the case in our own days; viz. consumption, dropsy, diseases of the liver and spleen, and ague;—that it was most fatal among the lower orders, who are generally more distressed in times of scarcity, and from other causes more susceptible of disease, such as cold, damp abodes, and poor diet;—that carnivorous animals were sick themselves, refusing to touch the carrion carcases; in fact, the infected provinces were entirely deserted by vultures;—lastly, that the malady was similar to our yellow, bilious, remittent fever, in all its symptoms, as we see it occurring amongst us in various places—the West Indies, America, &c.
Orosius gives us an account of another pestilence, which devastated Rome, anno 144 B.C.
In the year 140 before the Christian era, the war of Viriathus having been concluded, the proconsul Q. Pompeius Rufus commenced blockading Numantia (now Algeria). The plan of his operations being to charge the air with mephitic vapours, he determined on turning the course of the river Douro, and inundating the country round about by means of its waters, which would have the effect not only of spoiling the atmosphere by its moist exhalations, but of inducing famine also, by the destruction of all vegetation. These attempts were, however, fruitless, inasmuch as the Numantians, being a robust and warlike people, resisted the consequences of the proconsul’s attempts against them. Having foreseen his intentions, they had supplied themselves with abundant provisions, which they had intercepted from the Roman legions; while, on the other hand, the Roman soldiers themselves fell victims to their own measures, pestilence having broken out among them—a malignant dysentery, equal in severity and fatality to that which formerly had laid waste the army of Lucullus.