Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy

by Robert Sallares

Malaria and Rome is the first comprehensive book on the history of malaria in Roman Italy. Aimed at an interdisciplinary readership, it explores the evolution and ecology of malaria, its medical and demographic effects on human populations in antiquity, its social and economic effects, the human responses to it, and the human interpretations of it.

Genres: History

358 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2002

Reviews

[Samuel Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rome and the nearby Pontine Marshes have been the setting of some of malaria's most debilitating ravages over two millennia. This history is an effort of Sallares to make sense of demography data spanning centuries in this region. The result is that malaria is seen to be more important than originally believed. Covering epidemiology, biology, biogeography and even ecology, the book is an important resource for understanding the disease's current evils. Beginning readers, however, will want to find a more remedial book before looking here.