L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano T here is a lot to say about epi- demics, becau- s e e p i d e m i c s a r e a s o l d a s Man himself. While what we've been e x p e r i e n c i n g s i n c e l a s t month is, without a doubt, u n p r e c e d e n t e d f o r o u r generation and the one of our parents, epidemics and pandemics are not new to H u m a n k i n d . I n I t a l y , throughout history, they have affected our lives so m u c h t h a t s o m e o f o u r most beautiful — and well known — literature made of them bona fide narrative characters; that's exactly w h a t h a p p e n e d i n B o c c a c c i o ' s D e c a - meron, where the 1348's European plague epidemic was pretext for a group of wealthy Florentines to self isolate in the countryside, and spend their time telling to one another the very sto- ries that formed the back- bone of the work. Some of you may be also familiar w i t h A l e s s a n d r o M a n z o n i ' s P r o m e s s i Sposi (the Betrothed), a love story set on a back- d r o p o f p e s t i l e n c e a n d death in the very cities and v a l l e y s , t h o s e o f Lombardia, where Covid- 19 has claimed the most victims — reason for which many an Italian chose the novel as their quarantine reading. But the history of epide- mics in the Belpaese dates further back in time and goes all the way to the glorious centuries of the Roman Empire. Galen, doctor and writer whose medical knowledge influen- ced the scientific world for over 13th centuries, left us accounts of what is known as the Antonine Plague, a pandemic that hit Rome a n d t h e w h o l e E m p i r e between 165 and 180 AD. While the actual nature of t h e p a n d e m i c h a s n e v e r been fully ascertained — some historians says it was smallpox, others measles — we know it was spread by soldiers returning from the Roman-Parthian campai- gns. Another Roman histo- rian Cassius Dio, recoun- ted how the illness arrived to kill 2000 people a day in Rome and, ultimately, a quarter of all the infected. According to his words, the p a n d e m i c c o n t i n u e d o n and off for the good part of 30 years, decimating the Roman army. It is estima- t e d i t m a y h a v e c a u s e d between 5 and 30 million victims. A few centuries later, the — b y t h e n E a s t e r n — Roman Empire was the epicenter of a deadly pan- d e m i c a g a i n . I t w a s t h e year 541 AD and Rome no l o n g e r w a s t h e c a p u t m u n d i , r e p l a c e d b y Costantinople. From there, plague spread its deadly, black tentacles across the Mediterranean, following the commercial routes that c o n n e c t e d a l l t h e m a j o r p o r t s o f t h e b a s i n . T h i s wasn't a contained epide- mic, if it's true that out- breaks took place regularly for two centuries, causing an estimated dead count ranging between 20 and 100 million. From a socio- cultural point of view, the Justinian plague had simi- lar effects to those of its w a y m o r e f a m o u s 1 4 t h century's cousin, the Black FRANCESCA BEZZONE It isn't the first time: Italy and its history with epidemics LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE An episode during the plague at Milan. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution — See page for author / CC BY Continued to page 24

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