Editing Plague of Justinian (section)

== History ==
[[File:The imposing basilica next to the Forum and its gagantic pillars, also known as Basilica B, Philippi (7272621716).jpg |thumb|Incomplete [[basilica]] in [[Philippi]]; its construction is believed to have been halted by the plague of Justinian.]]

The Byzantine historian [[Procopius]] first reported the epidemic in 541 from the port of [[Pelusium]], near [[Suez]] in Egypt.<ref name="Wade" /> Two other first-hand reports of the plague's ravages were by the [[Syriac Christians|Syriac]] church historian [[John of Ephesus]]<ref>John of Ephesus, Ecclesiastical History, part 2. Translation of relevant portions [http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2017/05/10/john-of-ephesus-describes-the-justinianic-plague/ here].</ref> and by [[Evagrius Scholasticus]], who was a child in [[Antioch]] at the time and later became a church historian. Evagrius was afflicted with the [[buboes]] associated with the disease, but survived. During the disease's four returns in his lifetime, he lost his wife, a daughter and her child, other children, most of his servants, and people from his country estate.<ref>Evagrius, ''Historia Ecclesiae'', IV.29.</ref>

According to contemporary sources, the outbreak in [[Constantinople]] was thought to have been carried to the city by infected rats on grain ships arriving from Egypt.<ref name="Wade">{{cite news |first=Nicholas|last=Wade |title=Europe's Plagues Came From China, Study Finds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/health/01plague.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City|date=October 31, 2010 |access-date=November 1, 2010|author-link=Nicholas Wade }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray |date=2022 |others=Interview with Johannes Preiser-Kapeller |title=Networks of Rome, Byzantium, and China |url=https://www.academia.edu/88994886 |journal=Antiqvvs |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=44}}</ref> To feed its citizens, the city and outlying communities imported large amounts of grain, mostly from Egypt. The rat population in Egypt thrived on feeding from the large [[Granary|granaries]] maintained by the government, and fleas thrived as well.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Procopius, in a passage closely modelled on [[Thucydides]], recorded that at its peak the plague was killing 10,000 people in Constantinople daily,<ref>Procopius, ''Persian War'' II.22–23.</ref> but the accuracy of the figure is in question, and the true number will probably never be known. He noted that because there was no room to bury the dead, bodies were left stacked in the open, funeral rites were often left unattended to, and the entire city smelled like the dead.<ref>Procopius: The Plague, 542</ref> Given such circumstances, it is highly probable that a sudden increase in mortality rates may not have been as accurately recorded, hence why the overall death toll is based on an estimate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sarris |first1=Peter |title=The Justinianic plague: origins and effects |journal=Continuity and Change |date=August 2002 |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=174 |doi=10.1017/S0268416002004137 |s2cid=144954310 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F48D7B45421836E3F25613CF68EE6F30/S0268416002004137a.pdf/the-justinianic-plague-origins-and-effects.pdf |access-date=8 December 2023}}</ref>

In Procopius' ''[[Procopius#Secret History|Secret History]],'' he records the devastation in the countryside and reports the ruthless response by the hard-pressed Justinian:

<blockquote>When pestilence swept through the whole known world and notably the Roman Empire, wiping out most of the farming community and of necessity leaving a trail of desolation in its wake, Justinian showed no mercy towards the ruined freeholders. Even then, he did not refrain from demanding the annual tax, not only the amount at which he assessed each individual, but also the amount for which his deceased neighbors were liable.<ref>Procopius, ''Anekdota'', 23.20f.</ref> </blockquote>

As a result of the plague in the countryside, farmers could not take care of crops and the price of grain rose in Constantinople. Justinian had expended huge amounts of money for wars against the [[Vandals]] in the region of [[Carthage]] and against the [[Ostrogoths]]' [[Ostrogothic Kingdom|kingdom in Italy]]. He had invested heavily in the construction of great churches, such as [[Hagia Sophia]]. As the empire tried to fund the projects, the plague caused tax revenues to decline through the massive number of deaths and the disruption of agriculture and trade. Justinian swiftly enacted new legislation to deal more efficiently with the glut of inheritance suits being brought as a result of victims dying [[intestate]].<ref>Justinian, Edict IX.3; J. Moorhead 1994; Averil Cameron, ''The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, AD 395–600'', 1993:111.</ref>

The plague's long-term effects on European and [[History of Christianity|Christian]] history were enormous. As the disease spread to port cities around the Mediterranean, the struggling [[Goths]] were reinvigorated and [[Gothic War (535–554)|their conflict with Constantinople]] entered a new phase. The plague weakened the Byzantine Empire at a critical point, when Justinian's armies had nearly retaken all of Italy and the western Mediterranean coast; the evolving conquest would have reunited the core of the [[Western Roman Empire]] with the [[Eastern Roman Empire]]. Although the conquest occurred in 554, the reunification did not last long. In 568, the [[Lombards]] invaded [[Northern Italy]], defeated the small Byzantine army that had been left behind and established the [[Kingdom of the Lombards]].<ref name="Wade"/><ref>{{cite book|first=William|last=Rosen|url=http://www.justiniansflea.com/events.htm|title=Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe|publisher=[[Viking Press|Viking Adult]]|location=New York City|date=2007|pages=321–322|isbn=978-0-670-03855-8}}</ref>

[[Gaul]] is known to have suffered severely from the plague,<ref>{{cite book |first=T. M.|last=Charles-Edwards |author-link=Thomas Charles-Edwards|title=Wales and the Britons 350–1064|publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK |year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-821731-2|page=216}}</ref> and plague victims at an early Anglo-Saxon burial site at Edix Hill near [[Cambridge]] show that it also reached Britain.<ref name="Sarris"/>

Procopius said that plague sufferers experienced delusions, nightmares, fevers, swellings in the groin, armpits and behind the ears, and coma or death.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horgan |first=John |title=Justinian's Plague (541-542 CE) |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/782/justinians-plague-541-542-ce/ |access-date=2024-09-27 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> Treatments included cold baths, powders "blessed" by saints, magic [[amulet]]s or rings, and various drugs, especially [[alkaloid]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-01-31 |title=Two of History's Deadliest Plagues Were Linked, With Implications for Another Outbreak |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/140129-justinian-plague-black-death-bacteria-bubonic-pandemic#:~:text=The%20Justinian%20plague%20struck%20in,Africa,%20Arabia,%20and%20Europe. |access-date=2024-09-27 |website=Animals |language=en}}</ref> When these treatments failed, people went to hospitals or tried to [[quarantine]] themselves.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-12 |title=The Justinianic Plague {{!}} Origins |url=https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/covid-justinianic-plague-lessons |access-date=2024-09-27 |website=origins.osu.edu |language=en}}</ref>

===Onset of the first plague pandemic===
{{Main|First plague pandemic}}
The Plague of Justinian is the first and the best known outbreak of the first plague pandemic, which continued to recur until the middle of the 8th century.<ref name="Stathakopoulos"/><ref>{{Cite journal |date=December 2020 |title=The Justinianic Plague and Global Pandemics: The Making of the Plague Concept |journal=The American Historical Review |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhaa510 |last1=Eisenberg |first1=Merle |last2=Mordechai |first2=Lee |volume=125|issue=5|pages=1632–1667}}</ref> Some historians believe the first plague pandemic was one of the [[List of epidemics|deadliest pandemics in history]], resulting in the deaths of an estimated 15 to 100 million people during two centuries of recurrence, a death toll equivalent to 25 to 60% of Europe's population at the time of the first outbreak.<ref name="Mordechai 2019-12-17">{{Cite journal |last1=Mordechai |first1=Lee |last2=Eisenberg |first2=Merle |last3=Newfield |first3=Timothy P. |last4=Izdebski |first4=Adam |last5=Kay |first5=Janet E. |last6=Poinar |first6=Hendrik |date=2019-12-17 |title=The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic? |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=116 |issue=51 |pages=25546–25554 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1903797116 |issn=0027-8424 |pmid=31792176 |pmc=6926030 |bibcode=2019PNAS..11625546M |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Maugh |first1=Thomas |title=An Empire's Epidemic |url=https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anempiresepidemic.html |website=www.ph.ucla.edu |access-date=20 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rosen |first=William |year=2007 |url=http://www.justiniansflea.com/events.htm |title=Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe |publisher=[[Viking Press|Viking Adult]] | location=New York City|page=3 |isbn=978-0-670-03855-8}}</ref> Research published in 2019 argued that the 200-year-long pandemic's death toll and social effects have been exaggerated, comparing it to the modern [[third plague pandemic]] (1855–1960s).<ref name="Mordechai 2019-12-17"/><ref name="Mordechai 2019-08-01"/> Furthermore, some historians argue that the eyewitness accounts of the disease are hysterical in tone and therefore misleading.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sarris |first1=Peter |title=The Justinianic plague: origins and effects |journal=Continuity and Change |date=August 2002 |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=173 |doi=10.1017/S0268416002004137 |s2cid=144954310 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F48D7B45421836E3F25613CF68EE6F30/S0268416002004137a.pdf/the-justinianic-plague-origins-and-effects.pdf |access-date=2023-12-08}}</ref>