Essay: Plague of Justinian
Sources:
Article on the Justianic Plague
Procopius: The Plague, 542
Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre
Instructions:
First, read the three selections linked above, including the short article on the Justianic Plague, excerpts of the writings of the court historian Procopius about the plague, and excerpts of the Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, a Syriac monastic account that describes the plague in the Middle East. Next, in your essay, you will account for the bubonic plague that hit the Byzantine Empire during the rule of the emperor Justinian in the sixth century CE.
In doing so, your essay, address all of the following questions:
1. What were the main symptoms of the bubonic plague? How did it seem to spread and what areas were the hardest hit?
2. How did ordinary people react to the plague? How did authorities such as physicians and government officials attempt to help plague victims, both the living and the dead? What impact did their actions have?
3. What sorts of reasons did people in the sixth century CE use to explain why the bubonic plague occurred? What lessons does this particular outbreak have for us today?