Plague of Justinian
The first recorded pandemic of bubonic plague spread from Egypt across the Mediterranean and Europe; at its height in 542 it killed a large part of the population of Constantinople.
- Date
- 541–549year known · duration: ≈ 8 years
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Byzantine Empire, Justinian I
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Justinianic plague; First plague pandemic; Первая пандемия чумы
Procopius first reports the disease in 541 at the Egyptian port of Pelusium. It reached Constantinople in the spring of 542, probably with the grain ships from Egypt; Procopius, echoing Thucydides, speaks of up to ten thousand deaths a day, and the emperor himself fell ill but recovered. By 544 the epidemic had spread around the Mediterranean, and outbreaks continued in Europe and the Near East until 549; the plague returned in waves until the middle of the 8th century.
In 2013 ancient DNA from 6th-century graves in Bavaria confirmed that the cause was Yersinia pestis, the bacterium of the later Black Death. Its demographic impact is disputed: many historians see the pandemic as one of the great catastrophes of late antiquity, while others (L. Mordechai and M. Eisenberg) argue that the written sources exaggerate it.
Connections
Related events
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central EuropeThe two great pandemics of the Roman world
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554 · Western and Central EuropeThe plague of 542 weakened the empire just as Totila began to reconquer Italy
Same participants
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · 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
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · 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
Adjacent events in the thread
- The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basinbetween 567 and 568 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554
- Benedict of Nursia founds Monte Cassinobetween 529 and 530
- The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basinbetween 567 and 568
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572
Eastern Europe
- The Avars ravage the lands of the Antesbetween 560 and 562
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
Africa
- Vandalic WarJune 533 – March 534
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Plague of Justinian
- Wikipedia (Russian): Юстинианова чума
- Little L. K. (ed.) Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Harbeck M. et al. Yersinia pestis DNA from Skeletal Remains from the 6th Century AD Reveals Insights into Justinianic Plague // PLoS Pathogens. — 2013. — Vol. 9, no. 5. — e1003349.
- Wikidata: Q821711