来源：《BBC历史》2023年6月刊
plague是个多义词：即可泛指瘟疫；也可以特指鼠疫
The adoption of settled agriculture was perhaps the most important turning point in history. For 2 million years, humans had been hunter-gatherers. Then, about 12,000 years ago, as the end of the last ice age brought a warmer and more stable climate, communities in various parts of the world began to cultivate crops and domesticate animals.
定居农业的采用也许是历史上最重要的转折点。200万年来，人类一直是狩猎采集者。然后，大约12000年前，随着上一次冰河时代的结束带来了更温暖、更稳定的气候，世界各地的社区开始种植作物和驯养动物。
The consequences of the adoption of farming are still debated. Many scholars see the transition to farming as the first crucial step on the path of human progress. Others point out that agriculture condemned the majority of the population to back-breaking, mind-numbing labour.
采用农业的后果仍在争论中。许多学者将向农业的转变视为人类进步道路上至关重要的第一步。其他人指出，农业使大多数人不得不从事艰苦繁重、令人麻木的劳动。
The transformative impact of farming on infectious diseases is, though, abundantly clear. For the first time, humans lived in close proximity to livestock. This aided the emergence of zoonotic infections – diseases that jump from animals to humans. The crowded and insanitary living conditions in Neolithic settlements also encouraged the transmission of pathogens from person to person or via infected water. Then, as trade links between far-flung locations developed, those too helped epidemics spread. Unsurprisingly, many of the most notorious infectious diseases – including the plague, tuberculosis, polio, smallpox and measles – emerged in the wake of the adoption of settled agriculture.
然而，农业对传染病的变革性影响是非常明显的。人类第一次生活在离牲畜很近的地方。这有助于人畜共患传染病的出现，即从动物传染给人类的疾病。新石器时代定居点拥挤而不卫生的生活条件也助长了病原体在人与人之间或通过受感染的水传播。然后，随着遥远地区之间贸易联系的发展，这些也助长了流行病的传播。不出所料，许多最臭名昭著的传染病——包括鼠疫、肺结核、小儿麻痹症、天花和麻疹——都是在采用定居农业之后出现的。
Infectious diseases played a crucial role in the rise and fall of the great empires of antiquity. In the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Thucydides argued that the Plague of Athens (possibly typhus or smallpox) was a crucial turning point in the Peloponnesian War, because it weakened Athens but left Sparta untouched.
传染病在古代大帝国的兴衰中发挥了至关重要的作用。公元前5世纪，希腊历史学家修昔底德认为，雅典瘟疫(可能是斑疹伤寒或天花)是伯罗奔尼撒战争的一个关键转折点，因为它削弱了雅典，但没有波及斯巴达。
More recently, the American classicist Kyle Harper highlighted the impact of epidemics on the Roman empire. The Antonine Plague (probably smallpox) of the mid-second century AD contributed to the end of the remarkable period of peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana. The Cyprianic Plague (an Ebola-like virus) played a prominent role in the ‘Crisis of the Third Century’ – five decades of insurrection and political instability, from AD 235 to 284, when the empire nearly collapsed. And the Plague of Justinian ( Yersinia pestis plague) halted the eastern empire’s efforts to reconquer the western provinces in the sixth century AD.
最近，美国古典学家凯尔·哈珀强调了流行病对罗马帝国的影响。公元二世纪中叶的安东尼瘟疫(可能是天花)导致了被称为大同时期的和平与繁荣时期的结束。塞浦路斯瘟疫(一种类似埃博拉病毒的病毒)在“三世纪危机”中发挥了重要作用——从公元235年到284年，长达50年的叛乱和政治不稳定，罗马帝国几乎崩溃。公元6世纪，查士丁尼瘟疫(鼠疫耶尔森氏菌鼠疫)阻止了东罗马帝国重新征服西部省份的努力。