to declare this,
that the most illustrious physicians predicted that many would die, who
unexpectedly escaped entirely from suffering shortly afterwards, and
that they declared that many would be saved, who were destined to be
carried off almost immediately. So it was that in this disease there was
no cause which came within the province of human reasoning; for in all
cases the issue tended to be something 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 an