Abstract
Did the Latin poet Lucan report an Ebola virus disease outbreak in his epic Pharsalia? An epidemiological report in Roman literature
Highlights
The explanations that Lucan provides are obviously compatible with the knowledge of the time
Considering the numerous affinities between the reported symptoms and the symptomatology of Ebola virus disease (EVD), the authors hypothesize that the report provided by Lucan could have been the very first detailed description of an EVD outbreak
For the historian and poet Lucan, the inexplicable is exclusively attributable to Fate, which governs the destinies of men and gods
Summary
Did the Latin poet Lucan report an Ebola virus disease outbreak in his epic Pharsalia? Giovanni Meledandri1,* and Leonardo Borgese2 1Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi - Department of Human Sciences. “...our Pharsalia shall live, and we shall be condemned to darkness by no era” (C.V. Lucan, Pharsalia, Liber IX)
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