Plague in Constantinople, 746–747
Bubonic plague, which had broken out in Sicily and Calabria and spread through Monemvasia, Greece and the islands, reached Constantinople and emptied whole households; when the cemeteries were full, the dead were buried in cisterns, ditches, vineyards and orchards within the walls. It was one of the last great waves of the pandemic that had begun under Justinian.
- Date
- 746 – between 747 and 748start: year known; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 2 years
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Byzantine Empire, Constantine V
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Plague of 746–747; Plague of 747; Чума 747 года; First plague pandemic; Первая пандемия чумы
D. Turner (1990) treats the patriarch Nikephoros, Theodore the Stoudite and Theophanes the Confessor as the main sources for the epidemic. According to Theophanes, the pestilence that started in Sicily and Calabria travelled “like a spreading fire” through Monemvasia, Hellas and the adjoining islands during the 14th indiction (745/746) and reached the imperial city in the 15th (746/747). Oily marks in the shape of little crosses suddenly appeared on people’s garments and on church hangings. Entire households died out, leaving no one to bury the dead; bodies were carried away on planks laid across pack animals and piled in carts. When the cemeteries of the city and its suburbs were full, as well as empty cisterns and ditches, vineyards and even orchards within the old walls were dug up for graves. Some modern authors date the outbreak in the capital to 747/748.
The plague brought Byzantine military operations to a halt. After it had run its course, Constantine V resettled families from mainland Greece and the Aegean islands in the depopulated capital. Both Nikephoros and Theophanes were iconophiles, and, as D. Marjanović (2019) argued, both used the description of the plague to portray the reign of the iconoclast emperor as impious and ruinous; D. Turner (1990) connected the trauma of the epidemic with the later bitterness of the iconoclast controversy, including the persecution of monks. The outbreak was one of the last waves of the first plague pandemic, which had begun with the Plague of Justinian in 541.
Connections
Related events
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and AnatoliaOne of the last waves of the pandemic that began in 541
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and AnatoliaIconophile chroniclers used the plague to portray the iconoclast Constantine V as impious
Same participants
- Battle of Akroinon740 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
- The Lombards take Ravenna751 · Western and Central Europevia Byzantine Empire
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Walls of Constantinoplebetween 404 and 408 – 413 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Imperial school in the Capitol of Constantinople27 February 425 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Theodosius II1 May 408 – 28 July 450 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Code15 February 438 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Nika riots13–18 January 532 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Silkworm eggs are smuggled to Constantinoplebetween 552 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Phocas overthrows Maurice23 November 602 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Heraclius5 October 610 – 11 February 641 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Invention of Greek firec. 672 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Third Council of Constantinople7 November 680 – 16 September 681 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- The Ecloga: law code of Leo III and Constantine Vbetween 726 and 741 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Irene becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empirebetween 15 August and 19 August 797 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Mission of Boniface in Germany15 May 719 – 5 June 754
Eastern Europe
- Volyntsevo culture: the Slavs of the Dnieper Left Bank in the Khazar agebetween 700 and 750 – between 813 and 833
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Middle East and Egypt
- Abbasid Revolution9 June 747 – between July and August 750
- Abu Hanifa and Malik: the oldest surviving Sunni schools of lawbetween 737 and 738 – 795
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
- Lalitaditya Muktapida rules Kashmir: the Sun temple of Martandbetween 724 and 725 – between 760 and 761
- Gopala becomes king: the rise of the Pala dynastybetween 750 and 756
East Asia
- Emperor Shōmu’s Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji6 November 743 – 26 May 752
- Tianbao War: Nanzhao destroys the Tang armies750 – between 25 June and 23 July 754
- Reign of Emperor Xuanzong: the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras8 September 712 – 12 August 756
North America
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Pueblo I: villages of surface rooms on the Colorado Plateauc. 750 – c. 900
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
Latin America
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): First plague pandemic
- Wikipedia (English): Constantine V
- Wikipedia (Russian): Константин V
- Wikipedia (Russian): Юстинианова чума
- The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor / transl. C. Mango, R. Scott. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. — P. 585–586.
- Turner D. The Politics of Despair: The Plague of 746–747 and Iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire // Annual of the British School at Athens. — 1990. — Vol. 85. — P. 419–434. — abstract: the main sources are the patriarch Nikephoros, Theodore the Stoudite and Theophanes
- Marjanović D. Memories of Plague in Late 8th and Early 9th Century Byzantine Historiography // Acta historiae medicinae, stomatologiae, pharmaciae, medicinae veterinariae. — 2019. — Vol. 38, № 1–2. — P. 8–20.