Plague and the End of Antiquity

Plague and the End of Antiquity

Using twelve essays to form a volume, Plague and the End of Antiquity attempts to address the Justinianic Plague that ravaged the entire globe from 540 to 750. History, archaeology, epidemiology, and molecular biology are combined to “produce a comprehensive account of the pandemic’s origins, spread, and mortality, as well as its economic, social, political, and religious effects.” Because of the sheer magnitude and scope of the Justinianic Plauge, the editor of Plague and the End of Antiquity, Lester K. Little, claims that the time has not yet come for a single author to undertake such a colossal narrative of the pandemic that spanned centuries. Instead, The Plague and the End of Antiquity gives readers twelve different essays on the subject. After one reads Plague and the End of Antiquity, it will be abundantly clear that a single, comprehensive, and cohesive narrative of the Justinianic Plague is desperately needed. 

Following a brief introduction, the initial essays contained in Plague and the End of Antiquity are grouped according to region: The Near East, The Byzantine Empire, and The Latin West. With a combined eight authors covering the same subject (albeit in different regions of the world) much information is covered at least twice, and sometimes three times. The symptoms of bubonic plague are described again and again. The effects of bubonic plague are examined over and over. Indeed, almost each and every topic that has a connection with the bubonic plague is explored, researched, and written about repeatedly. A single narrative would be able to succinctly and less-repetitively provide an account of the life-extinguishing Justinianic Plague. Too much time, space, and research effort is expended in the organizational approach of The Plague and the End of Antiquity. 

The one bright spot among the regional organizational method is the commonalities revealed during the Justinianic Plague pandemic, especially given the enormous geographical regions touched by bubonic plague. Every region experienced a morbid surplus of dead bodies. Economic stagnation was reported from Ireland to China. Urban flight was observed on every continent. The essays also point to similar trends of spread and infection across the globe. 

Written sources remain historians primary source when researching the Justinianic Plague. We are left with sources from four languages to discern the history of the earliest pandemic of bubonic plague: Syriac, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. The longest account in any language is found in the Ecclesiastical History by John, Bishop of Ephesus, written in Syriac. Another Syriac source is theChronicle of Zuqnin. Arabic sources were not left to us directly, but incorporated later “into larger, more systematic works.” The main Greek source of the Justinianic Plague was that of the historian Procopius of Caesarea. His Persian War and Secret History reveal the spread and intensity of the plague in Byzantium, and he also does a surprisingly remarkable job of describing the symptoms of bubonic plague and the progression of the disease given his lack of medical training or experience. Other Greek sources that are relied on in the twelve essays of Plague and the End of Antiquity are lawyers Agathias and Evagrius. With regards to Spain, one literary source is noted, the Chronicle of Zaragoza. The Justinianic Plague devastated Ireland as well. Written sources are even more limited there, as Ann Dooley relies on annalistic sources to document the death of important families. There are other Irish legal and paralegal sources that offer vague clues to the scope of the Plague, but the majority of these need to be used with conjecture. Finally, Gregory of Tours left a fascinating and notable record of the Justinianic Plague and its effects on the port city of Marseilles. His observations of the transmission of the disease off of ships are insightful and on target. 

To say that the lights dimmed in the literary record after the sixth century is an understatement. John Maddicott refers to the seventh century as “notoriously unchronicled.” In addition, throughout the Justinianic Plague pandemic, there were no chroniclers with a medical background. So how can literary sources be relied upon for information about the Justinianic Plague? The twelve authors of Plague and the End of Antiquity validate the literary sources by referencing them to the microbiological and archaeological records. Some chroniclers, such as John of Ephesus, tended to use hyperbole when reporting on the Justinianic Plague, so each written testament of the plague needs to be corroborated as much as possible with the extant physical record and the emerging research in molecular biology and epidemiology. 

There is little argument that sixth century people had not faced any type of pandemic disease equal to the range of bubonic plague. There was no precedent on how to live with or cope with the deadly outbreak. The reactions of the people who lived during the Justinianic Plague are revealing. Again and again the authors in Plague and the End of Antiquity describe the people’s flight from bubonic plague. This flight had “the attendant likelihood of the onward transmission of the disease.”Escape from death would have been the people’s first reaction from such an unbiased killer. Also, in England the plague resulted in “the abandonment of the most binding obligations.” Fields went unharvested. Parents ceased parenting. The dead were left unburied. Entire villages were depopulated. 

People desperately looked for reasons behind the bubonic plague. Many people equated the plague with God’s punishment for their sins. John of Ephesus and the Zuqnin chronicler explained plague epidemics as a call for repentance and “the rod of God’s gentle mercy.” In one city on the border between Palestine and Egypt, people there “reverted to paganism and worshipped a brass statue to avert the plague” and its consequences. Alain J. Stoclet points to one physician in the 588 outbreak of plague in the vicinity of Constantinope who was passed back and forth between Gregory of Tours and Chilperic. Scott argues that Gregory was acting not to protect his assemblage against the plague, but “against charlatans whose supposed remedies were far less harmful in his view than the false doctrines that they were wont to spread.” In Syria, excavations have revealed church building that continued despite epidemics of plague. Hugh N. Kennedy maintains that church building during these times should not be mistaken for a vitality or prosperity of the village, just that there were people still living who had the means to construct such a building. Clearly, people were living in a confused time period and searched for explanations and reasons behind the plague in many different ways. 

Despite the trials of the Justinianic Plague pandemics and its deadly effects, Maddicott maintains “that fertility outstripped mortality as the main determinant of demographic change.” Maddicott also points to a monastic boom as a sign of the growth of population in the decade following the plague’s disappearance.Outside the monastic aspect of society, Maddicott admits that there is little evidence of what happened to the people of the English countryside. The archaeological record is virtually all that remains of the eighth and ninth centuries. Of those, Maddicott points out that the few sites from that time period were not reoccupied by rural peoples after the plague vanished. Not only that, but there was a near-cessation of building activity in the years that followed. Of the building activity that is evident, there was a significant change of housebuilding styles. Most importantly, missing from existing archaeological sites is the sceatta, a common Anglo-Saxon coin. The Justinianic Plague caused people to begin anew. 

All of these changes in society that occurred after the Justinianic Plague pandemic, are suggestive of an end to antiquity and the dawning of the Middle Ages. Rural flight of the survivors, as noted elsewhere, reshaped the demography of every region. Monasticism, one of the great tenants of the Middle Ages, rose to prominence in the years after the plague disappeared. Robert Sallares claims that the effects of the plague on early medieval history “undoubtedly played a major role in undermining the old order of the sub-Roman world and paved the way for the immigration of less Romanized newcomers.”

In the preface of Plague and the End of Antiquity, Little explains that the appearances of bubonic plagues from 541 to 750 coincided with a “distinctive shaping of the Byzantine Empire, a new prominence of monasticism and of the Roman papacy, the gradual Christianizing of the Celtic and Germanic peoples, the beginnings of Islam, the rapid accumulation of the Arabic Empire, the ascent of the Carolingian dynasty in Frankish Gaul, and, not coincidentally, the beginnings of a positive work ethic in the Latin West.”The twelve essays that follow the preface attempt to address each of these effects, some with greater energy than others. For instance, at no other place in the book is work ethic mentioned than in Little’s quote from the preface. 

As for future research hopes of the Justinianic Plague pandemic, the path is bright. Taken in tandem with the literary sources, archaeology will continue to yield findings and important information. But, however helpful archaeology may be, it cannot tell us other vital facts such as the progress of epidemic disease in any period. The effects on the countryside remain certain, but unquantifiable. The archaeological evidence is too imprecise to be interpreted alone.

Molecular biology and epidemiology have both emerged as fields that will illuminate the cause, virulence, spread, and effects of the Justinianic Plague. Michael McCormick avows that molecular biology “offers the first real prospect of resolution” on the much-debated cause of the bubonic plague. Epidemiology will benefit researchers by examining the suspected pathogen of bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis. In addition, knowing the vectors of transmission and infection can help us learn to prevent diseases such as bubonic plague. By studying the plague epidemics of the Middle Ages, when cycles of plague and other diseases occur today, research can be used to better identify those diseases, working toward the ultimate goal of amelioration, prevention, and extermination.