Final answer:
The Plague of the Ergastines is likely a confusion with the Plague of Athens, which devastated the city in 430 B.C., killing a quarter of its population, and was likely caused by the bacterium that leads to typhoid fever.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Plague of the Ergastines you are referring to seems to be a confusion with the Plague of Athens, which was an actual historical event. The Plague of Athens occurred in 430 B.C. and was a devastating epidemic that killed one-quarter of the Athenian troops fighting in the Peloponnesian War, as well as a large portion of the civilian population, weakening Athens significantly. Research conducted by scientists from the University of Athens suggests that the pathogen responsible for the plague was Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, which causes typhoid fever, a disease typically spread in overcrowded conditions and known to have caused epidemics throughout history. There were misunderstandings in past scholarship that suggested Yersinia pestis as the cause, but recent DNA evidence supports the typhoid fever explanation.