The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic of bubonic plague that struck the Byzantine Empire and the wider Mediterranean world beginning in 541 CE, during the reign of Emperor Justinian I, for whom it is named. The disease reached Constantinople by 542, reportedly killing tens of thousands of the city's residents at its height and afflicting the emperor himself, before spreading through trade routes into Byzantine territories across the Mediterranean, the Near East and parts of Europe. Recurrent waves of the same pandemic continued to strike the region for roughly two more centuries, and modern genetic analysis of ancient remains has confirmed the responsible pathogen as Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium behind the later medieval Black Death. The pandemic's severe demographic and economic toll is widely thought to have weakened the Byzantine Empire's finances, army and administration during Justinian's efforts to reconquer former Roman territory in the west, and it survives in a detailed contemporary account by the historian Procopius.
Facts
Partially Attested
Death Toll, Low Estimate (%)Figure is specific to the city of Constantinople during the initial 541 to 542 outbreak, not the empire wide population. Death Toll, High Estimate (%)Figure is specific to Constantinople; a separate estimate puts wider Eastern Mediterranean mortality at up to a quarter, 25 percent, of the population. Disputed
Death Toll, Low Estimate15,000,000 to 100,000,000 1 Estimate is for the entire First Plague Pandemic, 541 to 767, of which the Plague of Justinian in 541 was the first and most severe outbreak; it is not a single outbreak figure. LocationMediterranean Basin, Byzantine Empire 1 Connections
In Era
Source Plague of Justinian, Wikipedia
In the Other Atlases
Took Place In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject took place.
Sources
1. Plague of Justinian, Wikipedia
History
The Byzantine historian Procopius first reported the epidemic in 541 from the port of Pelusium
Epidemiology
Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, especially the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire
Epidemiology, Virulence and mortality rate
estimated 15 to 100 million people during two centuries of recurrence, a death toll equivalent to 25 to 60% of Europe's population
History [death-toll-low-percent]
killed about a fifth of the population in the imperial capital Constantinople
History [death-toll-high-percent]
According to one view, the initial plague ultimately killed perhaps 40% of the city's inhabitants and caused the deaths of up to a quarter of the human population of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Plague of Justinian: Event Type
The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic of bubonic plague that struck the Byzantine Empire and the wider Mediterranean world beginning in 541 CE, during the reign of Emperor Justinian I, for whom it is named.
In Era: The Post-Classical and Medieval Period, lead paragraph and infobox, dates
in 550 (a decade after the Plague of Justinian) with Justinian's conquests shown in green
In Group: Events of the Sixth to Eighth Centuries, 500 to 750 CE, Article text
The plague of Justinian or Justinianic plague (AD 541-549) was an epidemic of plague that afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, especially the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.