The order of a civil society quickly disintegrated. The epidemics, Thucydides relates, brought forth a wild recklessness, a “lawless extravagance which owed its origins to the plague.” “Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner,” he said. Athenians could not forget the sight of rich men dying suddenly and those who had had nothing seizing the rich men’s property. What was the use of saving or living frugally, many asked, when death could come at any moment and the poor could descend like vultures? “So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their
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