The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 is the second volume of Julius Rosenbaum’s scholarly history of venereal disease in classical antiquity. Drawing on Greek and Roman medical, literary, and historical sources, Rosenbaum examines ancient attitudes toward sexuality, disease, and the body, treating his subject as a matter of medical and cultural history.
The work is a serious nineteenth-century study in the history of medicine and ancient social life, assembling references scattered across classical literature. Frank in subject matter and antiquarian in approach, it sheds light on aspects of antiquity often passed over in conventional histories. For students of classical culture, the history of medicine, and the social study of the ancient world, Rosenbaum’s volume remains a detailed and unusual source.