Changes

Some of the earliest recorded epidemics may appear by the mid-2nd millennium BCE. Some of these may have been global-scal scale pandemics but often this information is difficult to piece together since most societies were still without writing. In Mesopotamia, recordings of plague are made in the Old Babylonian period (1800-1600 BCE), which could have been a pandemic that had started in Asia or spread in Asia. By around 1400 BCE, the Hittites mention a plague was spread through their country and that they had asked the gods to spread the disease to their enemies rather than on them. In fact, by 1200 BCE, a great collapse of states occurred, including the fall of the Hittites, and along the eastern Mediterranean, with the Mycenaean Greeks collapsing as well. Texts indicate that great waves of invasions occurred that caused this collapse. However, it is likely something else triggered While this; while nobody knows for sure what triggered these mass migrations and invasions, one possibility is a chain reaction of events across Eurasia led to migrations that pushed groups to take risky invasions of areas such as southeast Europe and Mediterranean region. Pestilence, plagues, and global pandemics have been leading reasons as to what caused these migrations and invasions to occur. The events were so pronounced that for 200 years, few written records were produced and this has been called one of the earliest great 'Dark Ages' due to the scale of impact these events had on established complex societies around the Mediterranean region.<ref>For more on early disease or even pandemics, see: Watts, S.J., 1999. <i>Epidemics and history: disease, power and imperialism</i>. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven. </ref>

One relatively well-known early epidemic, and one of the first virus-based epidemics, was called the Athenian Plague, which fatally weakened the power of Athens in the 5th century BCE and was likely a major outbreak of typhoid. From around 430-426 BCE, historians believe this typhoid likely became widespread in Athens, killing not only many of its citizens but also weakening its army. This led Athens to lose power to its competitor city-states, particularly Sparta, in the Peloponnesian War. Athens would not regain any significant influence for generations, as the population had to recover from the devastation of the outbreak. While other states may have been affected by this outbreak, the death rates were so high and sudden that in a way it likely limited the impact of the outbreak mainly to Athens. This possibly explains why it was mainly Athens that weakened and not other states. Cholera may have been the most common forms of epidemics that could have transformed into global or regional pandemics. In fact, cholera would remain among the most frequently reoccurring epidemic epidemics and pandemic pandemics until the 20th century, where by then improved sanitation and drinking water had reduced its effects.<ref>For more on the Athenian Plague, see: Cohn, S.K., 2018. <i>Epidemics: hate and compassion from the plague of Athens to AIDS</i>, First edition. ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford.</ref>