53 ^ 
observed how malaria affects the temper, rendering the patient morose 
and cross-tempered. It is interesting to note that the word /zeXayxoXia 
becomes common in Attic literature just at that time (the last 
quarter of the fifth century) when it seems likely that malaria first 
became endemic in Attica. Plato in the Timaeus declares that vice 
is due to bodily disease, and in particular derives peevishness, 
melancholy, rashness, cowardice, forgetfulness and stupidity from 
bilious humours finding no outlet from the body. 
1 here is a remarkable reference to the influence of malaria upon 
character in the Hippocratic treatise Airs, Waters and Places. 
I hose who dwell in hollow, hot districts,” says the writer, “where 
the winds and water are warm, are neither tall nor straight. If 
they drink the water of the place they have diseases of the spleen 
and stomach. I hey are stout and fleshy, dark-coloured and bilious. 
Hy nature they are neither courageous nor of great powers of 
endurance. But there are no ill effects when the water is drained off." 
What, then, is the change of character which accompanied the 
decline of Greece and Rome? Between 450 and 300 B.c. the Greeks 
(at any iate the Athenians, for it is of them that we know most) lost 
then manly vigour and intellectual strength. Patriotism was still 
considered <1 viitue, but few had the energy and initiative to translate 
t ieor) into practice. Love of ease and comfort grew apace, 
hilosophy became pessimistic, and there was much brooding over 
cat 1. In art there appeared a tendency to sentimentalism. The 
of the third century b.c. was unequal to the effort for further 
1 h ess, and ne\ er recovered the vital force he once possessed. 
n Rome and Italy the change was different. The Roman of the 
early Lmpire can scarcely be called weak. But he had changed. 
• , ernness had become brutality. He was no longer contented 
banen & t Sim ^J e llfe ’ but *°ved gorgeous display and magnificent 
old Rr n ur thermore, the population of the city changed. The 
lament , ^ PP ^ ent ^’ & rew fewer in numbers, for there is a constant 
the ininpr'- 1 a - mi 1Cb Were sma h> while crowds of foreigners flocked to 
armies were ° f whom rose to P ovver and influence. The 
stock. Hist ° en reciuitcc * horn Spaniards and other more virile 
the old Rom 1 ans . anc * mor alists repeated ad nauseam the truth that 
Now SPlnt WaS dead 
w ^ would be absurd to maintain that all these changes were 
