A History of Disease in Ancient Times

This book shows how bubonic plague and smallpox helped
end the Hittite Empire, the Bronze Age in the Near East and later the
Carthaginian Empire. The book will examine all the possible infectious diseases
present in ancient times and show that life was a daily struggle for survival
either avoiding or fighting against these infectious disease epidemics. The
book will argue that infectious disease epidemics are a critical link in the
chain of causation for the demise of most civilizations in the ancient world
and that ancient historians should no longer ignore them, as is currently the
case.