541–549 AD in the Byzantine Empire, later northern Europe
This article is about the first episode of the First Plague Pandemic, 541–549. For the series of plague pandemics, 541–767, see First plague pandemic.
Plague of Justinian
Saint Sebastian pleads with Jesus for the life of a gravedigger afflicted during the plague of Justinian. (Josse Lieferinxe, c. 1497–1499)
Disease
Bubonic plague
Location
Mediterranean basin, Europe, Near East
Date
541–549
Deaths
15 million – 100 million (estimated)
A characteristic of Yersinia pestis infection is necrosis of the hand. (photo from 1975 plague victim)A map of the Byzantine Empire in 550 (a decade after the Plague of Justinian) with Justinian's conquests shown in green
The plague of Justinian or Justinianic plague (AD 541–549) was an epidemic that afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, severely affecting the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire, especially Constantinople.[1][2][3] The plague is named for the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), who according to his court historian Procopius contracted the disease and recovered in 542, at the height of the epidemic which killed about a fifth of the population in the imperial capital.[1][2] The contagion arrived in Roman Egypt in 541, spread around the Mediterranean Sea until 544, and persisted in Northern Europe and the Arabian Peninsula until 549. By 543, the plague had spread to every corner of the empire.[4][1] As the first episode of the first plague pandemic, it had profound economic, social, and political effects across Europe and the Near East and cultural and religious impact on Eastern Roman society.[5]
In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the plague of Justinian was Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium responsible for the Black Death (1346–1353).[6] Ancient and modern Yersinia pestis strains are closely related to the ancestor of the Justinian plague strain that has been found in the Tian Shan, a system of mountain ranges on the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China, suggesting that the Justinian plague originated in or near that region.[7][8] However, there would appear to be no mention of bubonic plague in China until the year 610.[9]
^ abcStathakopoulos, Dionysios (2018), "Plague, Justinianic (Early Medieval Pandemic)", The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8, retrieved 2020-05-16
^ abArrizabalaga, Jon (2010), Bjork, Robert E. (ed.), "plague and epidemics", The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198662624.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-866262-4, retrieved 2020-05-16
^Floor, Willem (2018). Studies in the History of Medicine in Iran. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers. p. 3. ISBN 978-1933823942. The Justinian plague (bubonic plague) also attacked the Sasanian lands.
^Meier, Mischa (August 2016). "The Justianic Plague: The economic consequences of the pandemic in the Eastern Roman empire and its cultural and religious effects". Early Medieval Europe. 24 (3): 267–292. doi:10.1111/emed.12152. S2CID 163966072.
^Gârdan, Gabriel-Viorel (2020). ""The Justinianic Plague": The Effects of a Pandemic in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages". Romanian Journal of Artistic Creativity. 8 (4): 3–18. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
^"Modern lab reaches across the ages to resolve plague DNA debate". phys.org. May 20, 2013.
Maria Cheng (January 28, 2014). "Plague DNA found in ancient teeth shows medieval Black Death, 1,500-year pandemic caused by same disease". National Post.
^Eroshenko, Galina A.; et al. (October 26, 2017). "Yersinia pestis strains of ancient phylogenetic branch 0.ANT are widely spread in the high-mountain plague foci of Kyrgyzstan". PLOS ONE. 12 (10): e0187230. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1287230E. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187230. PMC 5658180. PMID 29073248.
^Damgaard, Peter de B.; et al. (May 9, 2018). "137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes". Nature. 557 (7705): 369–374. Bibcode:2018Natur.557..369D. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2. hdl:1887/3202709. PMID 29743675. S2CID 13670282.
^Sarris, Peter (August 2002). "The Justinianic plague: origins and effects" (PDF). Continuity and Change. 17 (2): 171. doi:10.1017/S0268416002004137. S2CID 144954310. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
and 25 Related for: Plague of Justinian information
The plagueofJustinian or Justinianic plague (AD 541–549) was an epidemic that afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, severely...
The disease is also considered to have been responsible for the PlagueofJustinian, originating in the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th century CE, as...
the PlagueofJustinian in 541 and continued until 750 or 767; at least fifteen or eighteen major waves ofplague following the Justinianic plague have...
early 19th century) are shown by individual outbreaks, such as the PlagueofJustinian (first pandemic) and the Black Death (second pandemic). Infectious...
first plague pandemic and toward the end of the Muslim conquest of the region. It was likely a reemergence of the mid-6th-century PlagueofJustinian. Named...
least three known major plague pandemics. The first began with the PlagueofJustinian, which ravaged the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas in 541...
ancestor of later plague epidemics—including the third plague pandemic—and the descendant of the strain responsible for the PlagueofJustinian. In addition...
Justinian was struck by the plague in the early 540s but recovered. Theodora died in 548 at a relatively young age, possibly of cancer; Justinian outlived...
20% of London's population in 1665–1666 Plagueof Athens, a devastating epidemic which hit Athens in ancient Greece in 430 BCE PlagueofJustinian, a pandemic...
pandemics were: the first plague pandemic from 541 to ~750, spreading from Egypt to the Mediterranean (starting with the PlagueofJustinian) and northwestern...
eruptions caused crop failures, and were accompanied by the PlagueofJustinian, famine, and millions of deaths and initiated the Late Antique Little Ice Age...
outbreaks included the PlagueofJustinian, about 540, and the Black Death, about 1350, each of which killed a sizeable fraction of the world's people. Fleas...
The Antonine Plagueof AD 165 to 180, also known as the Plagueof Galen (after Galen, the Greek physician who described it), was a prolonged and destructive...
The Plagueof Cyprian was a pandemic that afflicted the Roman Empire from about AD 249 to 262, or 251/2 to 270. The plague is thought to have caused widespread...
the great plagueofJustinian, which began in the 540s and may have killed more than 100 million Europeans before spreading to other parts of the world...
The Plagueof Athens (Ancient Greek: Λοιμὸς τῶν Ἀθηνῶν, Loimos tôn Athênôn) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece...
thought to correspond to the PlagueofJustinian A common misspelling of Antigua, almost always referring to the nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Antique...
Papacy. Justinian constructed the Hagia Sophia, a great example of Byzantine architecture, and the first outbreak of the centuries-long first plague pandemic...
Battle of Tolbiac, Clovis I converts to Chalcedonianism 507: Battle of Vouillé 527–565: Justinian I 535–552: Gothic Wars 541–542: PlagueofJustinian in Constantinople...
is recognized as contributing to the decline and fall of the Sasanian Empire. PlagueofJustinian Daryaee & Rezakhani 2017, p. 161. Christensen 1993, p...
facilitated by the substantial decrease of the Southeastern European population during the PlagueofJustinian. Another reason was the Late Antique Little...
The Great Plagueof London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long...
The Hittite Plague or Hand of Nergal was an epidemic, possibly of tularemia, which occurred in the mid-to-late 14th century BC. The Hittite Empire stretched...
Global Information
