It first appeared at Pelusium, at the eastern edge of the Nile delta of Egypt. From there it reportedly moved both west to Alexandria and east to Palestine, and by 544 it had spread as far as west as Italy and Tunisia.
It was believed that the grain shipment from Egypt arrived in the ports of Constantinople in 541 also seem to have brought with them a plague of ferocity.
The plague raced through the population of the city and the number of deaths was phenomenal. 10,000 people died each day and the provisions for burying them could not keep up so that the bodies lay stacked up in many part of the city.
The plague killed 200,000 citizens in the Byzantium Empire in four months, then went on to kill about one-third of the people in Eastern Europe and half the population of Western Europe.
These epidemics (541-544) has been called the Plague of Justinian, since it occurred in the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian; the name has sometimes been extended to the entire 200 year period of the recurring epidemics as well. Even Emperor Justinian became infected by the plague, but he recovered.
Justinian Plague left Byzantium weakened and poorer. The emperor had lost of his military and civil leaders.
By the time Justinian died in 565, his grand plan to restore the Roman Empire of old had ended in failure.
Justinian’s Plague
