Plagues, Pandemics, and Global Political Change in a Historical Context

Researchers believe that the Athenian Plague might have originated in Ethiopia made its way through the Port of Piraeus, which was a primary source for food and supplies to Athens. The Spartans burned the fields around the city walls within which the Athenian population was sheltering, hence Athens had to depend on sea routes for its food supply opening up a channel for the plague contagion. Collapse of the Greek city state system was trigged by war and the plague, which ravaged the region and it caused famine and drought, and reset the political balance in the Mediterranean by ultimately elevating the Spartans to power.