History of the Peloponnesian War

Moreover, the misery of restlessness and wakefulness continually oppressed them: The body did not waste away so long as the disease was at its height, but resisted it beyond all expectation: so that they either died in most cases on the ninth or the seventh day, through the internal burning, while they had still some degree of strength; or if they escaped [that stage of the disorder], then, after it had further descended into the bowels, and violent ulceration was produced in them, and intense diarrhaea had come on, the greater part were afterwards carried off through the weakness occasioned by it.

For the disease, which was originally seated in the head, beginning from above, passed throughout the whole body; and if any one survived its most fatal consequences, yet it marked him by laying hold of his extremities;

for it settled on the pudenda and fingers, and toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, while some also lost theirs eyes. Others, again, were seized on their first recovery with forgetfulness of every thing alike, and did not know either themselves or their friends.

For the character of the disorder surpassed description; and while in other respects also it attacked every one in a degree more grievous than human nature could endure, in the following way, especially, it proved itself to be something different from any of the diseases familiar to man. All the birds and beasts that prey on human bodies, either did not come near them, though there were many lying unburied, or died after they had tasted them.