unaccountable.  For example, while some were helped by bathing, others were harmed in no less degree.  And of those who received no care many died, but others, contrary to reason, were saved.  And again, methods of treatment shewed different results with different patients.  Indeed the whole matter may be stated thus, that no device was discovered by man to save himself, so that either by taking precautions he should not suffer, or that when the malady had assailed him he should get the better of it; but suffering came without warning and recovery was due to no external cause.

And in the case of women who were pregnant death could be certainly foreseen if they were taken with the disease.  For some died through miscarriage, but others perished immediately at the time of birth with the infants they bore.  However, they say that three women in confinement survived though their children perished, and that one woman died at the very time of child-birth but that the child was born and survived.

Now in those cases where the swelling rose to an unusual size and a discharge of pus had set in, it came about that they escaped from the disease and survived, for clearly the acute condition of the carbuncle had found relief in this direction, and this proved to be in general an indication of returning health; but in cases where the swelling preserved its former appearance there ensued those troubles which I have just mentioned.  And with some of them it came about that the thigh was withered, in which case, though the swelling was there, it did not develop the least suppuration.  With others who survived the tongue did not remain unaffected, and they lived on either lisping or speaking incoherently and with difficulty.

XXIII

Now the disease in Byzantium ran a course of four months, and its greatest virulence lasted about three.  And at first the deaths were a little more than the normal, then the mortality rose still higher, and afterwards the tale of dead reached five thousand each day, and again it even came to ten thousand and still more than that.  Now in the beginning each man attended to the burial of the dead of his own house, and these they threw even into the tombs of others, either escaping detection or using violence; but afterwards confusion and disorder everywhere became complete.  For slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service of their domestics who were either sick or dead, and many houses became completely destitute of human inhabitants.  For this reason it came about that some of the notable men of the city because of the universal destitution remained unburied for many days.