Re: I thought this one was fairly clear to be "proper" plague
"So we in fact do not know if some of the earlier pandemics were real plague or let's say extremely virulent flu"
It's pretty clear from the contemporary literature that at least some of the plague outbreaks were pneumonic and described symptoms match haemorragic fevers.
Think "Ebola" with a 14-21 day incubation time instead of the 7-day one we see at the moment.
(FWIW, the same observation applies to ancient designations of "leprosy" - just about any disfiguring condition would qualify)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
