The Justianian Plague erupted in the Eastern Roman empire at the Egyptian port of Pelusium on the eastern end of the Nile delta. Although it is surely not the first pandemic, it is the first to survive in the historical record that can be accurately diagnosed and studied. There is now no doubt that it was caused by Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium that caused the Black Death of the 14th century and still causes significant deaths today. It is named for Emperor Justinian pictured to the right because it arrived during his reign and he is considered to be the last significant Roman Emperor. As bad as the plague was elsewhere, there is no doubt that the Eastern Roman empire that then encircled the Mediterranean took the brunt of the first wave of the plague in the 540s. The plague played a considerable role in the final collapse of the Roman empire, the birth of most of the modern European nations, and the rise of Islam. In effect, it played a significant role in shaping the world as we still know it today.
Justinian's Empire
Plague of Justinian Bibliography (click here)
Plague Glossary (click here)
Book Reviews
- Lester Little (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity
- William Rosen, Justinian’s Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire
Molecular Biology and Epidemiology
Plague in the British Isles
- Plague of 664
- 6th Century British Plague
- Bede on the Plague
- King Oswald and the Sussex Plague
- The King as Plague Defender
People of the Plague
Christianity and Islam
Miscellaneous
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