Bilgiler > Plague of Justinian and Black Plague
Plague of Justinian and Black Plague
The Plague of Justinian (541–542 AD) was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and especially its capital, Constantinople, as well as the Sasanian Empire, and port cities around the entire Mediterranean Sea,[1][2] as merchant ships harbored rats that carried fleas infected with plague. One of the deadliest plagues in history, the devastating pandemic resulted in the deaths of an estimated 25–50 million people during two centuries of recurrence, a death toll equivalent to 13–26% of the world's population at the time of the first outbreak.[3][4] The plague's social and cultural impact has been compared to that of the similar Black Death that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages, 600 years after the last outbreak of Justinian's plague.[5]
In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian was Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium responsible for Black Plague (1347–1351),[6][7] which was much shorter, but still killed an estimated one-third to one-half of Europeans. Ancient and modern Yersinia pestis strains closely related to the ancestor of the Justinian plague strain have been found in Tian Shan, a system of mountain ranges on the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China, suggesting that the Justinian plague may have originated in or near that region.[8][9]
Procopius, a Greek who was the principal historian of the 6th century, described the pandemic as worldwide in scope,[2][10] and this first plague returned periodically until the eighth century.[2] The waves of disease had a major effect on the subsequent course of European history. Modern historians named this plague incident after Justinian I, who was emperor at the time of the initial outbreak. Justinian himself contracted the disease, but survived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian
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