Plague Of Justinian

The Justinian or Justinianic plague, an infectious illness brought on by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was the first significant outbreak of the first plague pandemic, the first Old World pandemic (541-549 AD). The illness devastated the Sasanian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and particularly its capital, Constantinople, as well as the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), who reportedly caught the illness and recovered in 542, at the height of the pandemic that killed nearly a quarter of the population in the imperial capital, is named after the plague. The disease expanded over the Mediterranean region until 544, then continued in Northern Europe and the Arabian Peninsula until 549. It first appeared in Roman Egypt in 541.

The Justinian plague was so named in honor of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian who contracted it in 542 AD. Between 541 and 549 AD, the plague spread throughout Imperial Rome, killing more than one-fifth of the total population. Its variation, Yersinia pestis, first appeared in mountain regions near the borders of China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The sick rats on grain shipments that arrived in Rome from Egypt were the source of the disease outbreak.

Both this illness and the black death were caused by the same pathogen, and both plagues had similar side effects. This caused gangrene, chills, headaches, abdominal discomfort, and swollen lymph nodes in those who contracted it.