Fate of Rome
I think it is an interesting time for us to read about plagues compared to usual. Because we are in a pandemic, we are as close to understanding what they were dealing with as ever. There are still many differences, but still similarities. I think back to when Covid-19 hit and hospitals were filled with people who had it bad. I can't imagine how hard it must of been back before medicine, but I have more of an understanding of what the pandemic would have done to the peoples lives and the economy. On page 72, they talk about the disease in dense urban areas. We saw spikes in big cities here, so it is easy to imagine how fast it spread back then.
I did find it interesting at the beginning of the Chapter 3 how it started off talking about how terrible Aristides was. There was the quote about how he would hold his hands to his mouth because his teeth were falling out. He was in a terrible state, yet he still managed to deliver the “Roman Oration”. I found this to be impressive considering how he felt like he was close to death. Plus the fact that they didn't have modern-day medicine to help cure them. Today people will complain about not being able to work because they have a cold. After just reading the beginning, Aristides makes modern people look like babies.