Article written by Dominik Seroczyński
Justinian I (in the middle)- Credit: Adobe Stock -Source:
http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news%2C79784%2Cplague-justinian-late-antiquity-did-not-decimate-population-europe-says-new
Due to the current global situation, materials about past
epidemics appear in many media. I would like to introduce you to the epidemic I
read about recently.
The Plague of Justinian is a bubonic epidemic
that affected the Byzantine Empire in 541-542 CE (desease spread in throughout
the Mediterranean world and finally disappeard in 750 CE). Sources say that
plague has killed between 25 and 50 million people— which is about half the
world's population at that time (The Black Death, you've probably heard of, has
killed 50 million people of Europe in 4 years).
Justinian’s empire - Source: https://brewminate.com/justinians-plague-541-542-ce/
Originating from China and northeastern India, the plague
was transported by trade roads: land and sea. It was carried by fleas feeding
on black rats, which traveled with merchants.
Symptoms of the desease are:
- fever and chills
- headache
- muscle pain
- general weakness
- seizures
Infected person may also experience painful, swollen lymph
glands, called buboes (which give bubonic plague its name). These typically
appear in the groin, armpits, neck, or site of the insect bite or scratch.
People affected by the disease had at their disposal
treatment methods known then - developing (and making many mistakes) medicine
and beliefs. Some had access to doctors, others were treated at home, for
example with the help of amulets, to which they attributed magical, including
healing, properties.
The unaware people helped themselves to spread the disease.
Not knowing what the source of the problem was, and having to deal with a huge
number of victims, they had a problem with the proper disposal of human and animal
bodies.
Source: https://alchetron.com/Plague-of-Justinian
Bodies that were not disposed of immediately posed a risk of
infecting people dealing with him (insects feeding on him, including fleas).
First, people were buried in cemeteries, but they quickly overflowed. Then
ditches and mass graves were dug, but that was not enough. The bodies were
thrown into buildings, and also put on boats and thrown into the sea. The army
was involved in cleaning up dead bodies.
The disease does not choose, as found out Justinian I - who
is the most known patient (survived the disease).
The Plague of Justinian has more dimensions than the disease
and its health (and fatal) consequences. Justinian I has his share.
Procopius of Caesarea,
late antique Byzantine Greek scholar, explained, that Justynian opressed
population devastated by disease. In a country ruined by illness, Justinian not
only did not reduce the annual tax rate, but obliged people to pay their
obligations and for their dead neighbors.
Despite his illness, the Byzantine Empire was still a power,
but never as great as it was before the disease.
I recommend this short video, where you can find more
information about the plague.
Questions:
- Have you ever heard of The Plague of Justinian?
- What do you think about the attitude of the ruler and his support for subjects?
- Do you think the world is better prepared for such events today?
Sources:
1. Yes, I've heard about The Plague of Justinian and other plagues that took place in the world and even in our country, but I've never read and delved into this subject so far!
ReplyDelete2. It is difficult to refer to the principles which the Lord has issued. I don't know what people were dealing with and how their life look like from their side. Probably for more prosperous (rich) residents, the tax problem was easier to survive, while those who came from poorer families had to make a lot of efforts to deal with this problem.
3. In my opinion it is difficult to prepare for a plague or epidemic, same as a disaster. No one will ever be fully prepared for those occurrence, that in these days many of us need to face up the crisis. Life will probably surprise us many times, in a positive and negative way, but always we have to take account of such a circumstances.
Referring to the second answer - it seems to me that even the rich had to have a problem, because there was no one to work for them, they had nothing to make money from.
DeleteCrisis management, because such in the case of an epidemic is needed, sometimes, I feel, is underestimated. Just as if nothing bad ever happened. It seems to me that part of the situation can be prepared (but it must be done in advance and it must be thought out)
Reffering more deeply to this topic, I agree with your observations about the costs to the rich society, but I think that the much more richer society always have the easier way. As for preparing for an epidemic, it is hard to say... I think that we are able to predict many situations, but not all of them - as the current situation in our country shows.
DeleteDo you think that the current situation is due to a lack of predictions or perhaps a lack of preparation? Records in the law indicate that such risk has always been taken into account, and there are also some inventories, including protective suits for medics (how old they are and in what condition they are may be a subject for yet another discussion)
DeleteI think that the Polish government knew it very well that the epidemic would also affect our country, but the question was when? It seems to me that the epidemiological situation is difficult to control even in small country, because of peoples lifestyle. A huge number of people are going from point "A" to point "B", so we can't quite predict in which way the virus will go. The sanitary measures you mentioned are certainly the subject of another discussion, because, as you noticed, it is not mentioned how old and in what condition they are.
DeleteThe current situation is difficult, which even specialists say. Poland closed educational institutions relatively quickly, but it seems to me that this is not enough. The conditions that a person must meet to undergo a coronavirus test are absurd - even now when you call a doctor they ask, because they have to, if you have been abroad in the last 14 days. The situation is dynamic and the state must react dynamically.
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ReplyDeleteActually, it is the first time I hear about this plague. I've heard about some outbreaks, but not this one.
ReplyDeleteAs one person mentioned before, it is hard to comment the choices of the ruler during the crisis. To fully understand those political/economical moves, we should take more aspects into consideration, such as political situation, economic systems or people's financial situation.
Again, as mentioned before, in my opinion it is really hard to be prepared for any kind of plague or virus. After all how can we be prepared for something we do not even know, something we have never seen before? Maybe the most important factor is gaining experience from the past and trying to adapt this knowledge in the future.
I agree with the last sentence of your statement - learning and developing solutions based on past experience. This seems obvious, and it seems that not many rulers use it.
DeleteWhen it comes to governing at that time - it is difficult, but above all it should not be against people. How can you justify imposing fees for deceased neighbors?
1. Yes, I have heard about The Plague of Justinian in high school,
ReplyDeletebut I have never got into this topic.
2. It's hard to say what the good ruler should do in this situation in those days. However, I think Justinian's dealing for subjects was cruel and compassionless. In my opinion the ruler should help others in such different time.
3. Nowadays, world is better prepared for such events beacuse of developing
multiway technologies. The medicine is much different than in Justinian's time - now we have an acces to pharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical tools and so on... and nobody try to cure himself with amulets (I hope that nobody, we never know...).
Crisis management is difficult, so it is assessed differently over time. It seems to me that over time it is assessed a bit more gently - but still, then or now, people dealing with this topic are difficult to justify some of Justinian's ideas.
DeleteAs for today's preparation - I recently had a "corona party" with a colleague who is a paramedic. From what he said, it turns out that even buying overalls for a few years would be a huge help - now they use ones which are 12 years old. So it would be a big help to use old materials and replace them with new ones.
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ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard of The Plague of Justinian?
ReplyDeleteThat's the first time I'm hearing about that.
What do you think about the attitude of the ruler and his support for subjects?
I think what's worth to be mentioned and it was already been done by previous commentators - it's really "easy" to judge from our perspective. It's always a common mistake that when're taking into consideration some historical occurrence we're thinking with nowadays standards and point of view. It provides conclusions on the wrong assumptions so trying to not fail your question- I have no opinion on this topic.
Do you think the world is better prepared for such events today?
I think that world is prepared better than it was 10 or 40 years ago so I don't think 1,5 thousand years difference is even worth comparing :D
Yoy can't fail my question - we can agree or disagree - if we disagree, it is more interesting :)
DeleteI believe that judgment is our divine law and we can really judge - we will never be in other people's shoes, but we always know, intuitively, what is good and what is bad - regardless of the time.
Yes, I have heard of this epidemic. I also know the character of Justinian. Justinian rule was judged by his people when they organized a rebellion before the pandemic came(they were suppressed). In retrospect, Justinian's behavior during the plague was inhumane, but autocratic rule is usually associated with cruelty. Today, the world I know(I mean Europe) is better prepared for these types of crises. As humans, we have better access to medical care and basic material goods, we also have human rights developed over the centuries.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you hear about Justinian and this scourge? In school or are you interested in history?
DeleteThank you for the information about the rebellion in Justinian's time, and what do you think of him as a ruler?
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DeleteLong time ago I read 'Justinian and Theodora' by Robert Browning. I like to read historical books from time to time, but much more I'm interested in sociological issues than historical chronology. In my opinion he was a cruel and evil ruler for his people, but I can't deny that he's done a lot for humanity (culture, law reforms etc.)
DeleteAmong my close friends I have people who have similar interest and in history books, they are looking for rather curiosities and information that will allow a slightly different view of history. In this approach, history is no longer a set of dates, but a source of knowledge (and curiosities).
DeleteI did hear of The Plague of Justinian, but my knowledge was quite superficial. The ruler's attitude hardly deserves praise. In such difficult moments, the example of social solidarity is particularly important. And as the saying goes, the example comes from above. I can't even imagine what people felt then. The death of half the population of the globe is something really unbelievable. The level of medical knowledge between the sixth century and what we now know is a gulf, so I think we are certainly better prepared.
ReplyDeleteWe are prepared much better because of the progress - and were we well prepared now?
DeleteI've never heard about this disease before, but after reading the article I found this topic very interesting. To be honest it's hard to judge ruler's actions as good or bad, because we don't know exactly what problems it was necessary to overcome. Maybe some actions which looks like cruel was necessary to save more people. I think that world is better prepered for this kind of events nowadays. We must remember that every plague is something that we start learning when it already start to spread, but now we can share knowledge across the world and also we can warn other people and by that we can reduce plague spread.
ReplyDeleteI can not agree with you. Justinian's attitude and ripping money off the poorest, including paying them for their deceased neighbors, can be assessed unambiguously - regardless of the time.
DeleteAs for plagues - each is different, but effective precautions have been known for many years. Of course, each time you need to recognize the methods of dispersion and think about how to remedy it, but until it is recognized, you should be as careful as possible.
This is the first time I heard about this plague, but the topic seems itself very interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt's very easy to judge from our perspective but of course it seems that he wasn't very supportive to his people. Instead of helping them in such hard times, they had to pay even more for plague they did not have in control and it wasn't only their fault that it grew to such size. I think it's also hard to judge today's world. On one hand we have highly developed medicine but on the other hand we have media with trolls and fake news which raise level of unnecessary panic and makes it more harmful for us.
You raised a very important topic of fake news. What do you think is their source? Willingness to be the first to give some information, even though it's not true, believing that "fact" will become a fact or something else?
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ReplyDeleteI probably heard about it on some history lessons in middle school but I don't remember that much about it. It's hard to say about the attitude of the ruler because we don't really know how life back than looked like, sure we here about it from books but it is still hard to imagine. To compare it to present times I can't imagine what would I do if I was forced to pay more for sure people while this was happening lost their sources of income which made it a lot harder. Just imagine, we have corona virus right now and many people lost their jobs because of that, so what would happen if the gouverment forced us to pay more when people are already struggling. That can connect with the our present virus, we are definitely more taught in everything and political parties that rule right now are so caring about their position so they help people even if it is affecting our economy, also we are more prepared from the medical point of view which has developed a lot.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think that the help offered has some effect on the economic condition of Poland? It seems to me that the latest additions to various (but not all) groups are for much larger amounts. Moreover, assistance in other countries seems to be better organized, e.g. support for people who have an enterprise in Germany
DeleteI've heard something about it because it was caused by the same bacteria as Black Death but I didn't know the details.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the ruler, I believe it's easy to criticize now but to be honest we don't know the details. I mean, disposing of bodies or creating hospital or hospital-like facilities can't be done without money and if those people were dead, you had to find other way. I bet most of the deceased money went to family or closest neighbours so collecting money from them seems reasonable. Nevertheless, I'm not fan of ruler-subject relationship.
I can't say if we are prepared enough but judging by the current situation I believe we are more prepared than ever. We are quickly sharing information about the disease around the world and are able to find out how it transfers relatively easily so I think it's not that bad.
Do you really think that in ancient times this money was clearly coming back to the poorest? :)
DeleteIt seems to me that you understand preparation as reacting to the situation - and do you think that the appropriate reserves have been collected, e.g. medical and hygienic buttresses, or do you have the impression that they are urgently soughted now?
Yes, I heard that The Plague of Justinian happened, but I haven't read more about it. It is difficult to clearly assess the ruler's behavior based on a small amount of information. It seems cruel, but maybe the circumstances significantly influenced it? I just hope that present governments won't be forced to take such steps as Justinian decided to do. The current situation shows that, apart from being more developed as a civilization, we are far from prepared for a pandemic. Hopefully before the next one, because someday there will be another one, we will be able to prepare better.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that history clearly shows that every situation repeats itself - this does not bypass the epidemic.
DeleteWhen it comes to preparation - don't you think that education plays a huge role here? When I read about strikes in America against limiting movement because it limits their rights, I have goose bumps...
I haven't heard much about Justinian's plague, I remember it vaguely from history lessons and it was mentioned in a book that I've recently read, about Justinian and Constantinople during times of the Byzantine Empire. From a modern perspective, it's quite shocking that one disease can kill more than 1/4 of the global population. I'm sure nowadays we are better prepared for pandemic mostly because knowledge and the access to the information. However, it is still out of control and difficult to handle.
ReplyDeleteDoes it really shock you so much? It seems to me that ease of spreading plays the biggest role here, but in the 21st century we already had several epidemics: AH1N1, the zika virus, plus epidemics - just as threatening, which cannot be infected from another person - obesity, diabetes.
DeleteYes, I have heard about this disease but a wasn't aware that the number of fatalities is so huge.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to judge the behavior of the ruler because i don't know many details on the financial situations of the country or the ill patients which the policy concerned. At first glance, I would say that the Emperor was ruthless and unempathetic especially he was Infected too.
On the one hand, today medicine is highly developed and it is capable of inventing the cures and vaccines very quickly. On the other hand, the scale and speed of current international travel have never been seen before and it allows new mutations of viruses to spread around the world in a matter of days. As we can observe with COVID-19 those types of situations are testing how fast governments and societies can adapt and introduce strict protective measures to buy time until the cure is invented.
Jakub Magnowski
DeleteDon't you think that the spread of coronavirus is largely due to the merits of people? Traveling knowing that you are sick, leaving home knowing you are sick or you are likely to become infected. In addition, strikes against restrictions on leaving home, spending days of school-free days on skis or on the beach - such situations are taking place all over the world, and medicine has not come up with the most important medicine - against stupidity.
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ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't heard about this plague yet (I try to avoid this kind of "news" these days - it's just too much for me) I guess Justinian was a cruel sovereign in general as I remember a histroy lessons in middle school. Nowadays we are prepared a way better! And we can't compare this two situations: Justinian's plague and today's pandemic. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteWhy can't we compare them?
DeleteIt seems to me that it is advisable to verify that appropriate conclusions have been drawn. One of the biggest advantages of history is that you can learn from it and verify how specific activities have worked so far
Heavy topic when we compare it to coffee article. I didn’t, but is sounds interesting, so I will dig for more information. It’s easy to judge, but I don’t know what I will do in such though situation. As we see, our level of preparation was not high enough to such situation.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest advantage of this form of classes is the variety of topics :) Once you read about technological innovations, once about food and drinks, and sometimes about the disease that affected almost the entire world at that time.
DeleteWhat do you think is the cause of lack of proper preparation?
ReplyDeleteI had heard about The Plague of Justinian before, but I did not look for more information on this topic and did not know that it was a pandemic on such a large scale.
I am also very surprised by decisions regarding raising taxes. On the other hand, with the modern world problem, we can also feel more spending and many people struggle with financial problems.
I think that over time also the diseases or pandemics that affect us are more "adapted to the present day" and the world is never prepared for them.
No, I haven't heard. I'm glad that people are exploring knowlage the subject of a plague or pandemic. I would like to not comment on this topic on the blog. There is over lode informations in my head nowadays and it sometimes stress me out. Today is too much for me to write about pandemics or any catastrophe.. I might back to you when a will be bored future life :)
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