When most people think of the plague, they think of the horrific plague that swept through the known world, in waves, from as early as the late thirteenth century through to the eighteenth century, the Black Death. Who can blame them? In terms of the actual number of people killed, it was the worst disaster ever to strike the human race. It turns out, though, that this was not the first bubonic plague pandemic to sweep the known world, nor the last! Indeed, although this second bubonic plague pandemic did far more damage in Europe than the first, the first pandemic had far more serious consequences. What, after all, do you think actually caused the onset of the Dark Ages?

The first (undisputed) bubonic plague pandemic was the one that began in the reign of the last Roman emperor, Justinian, and it caused one of the worst human die-offs in recorded history. In the fourth century, the Roman Empire had split in half, with capitals in Rome and Constantinople (Istanbul). In the next century, the Goths and Vandals sacked Rome, and the western empire crashed before the century ended. The eastern realm managed to survive, and the eastern emperor, Justinian, began reconquering the western territories previously lost to German tribes. By 542, Justinian had taken back much of the western empire, and he was ready to take more. Then the plague came.

Much about what is known about this plague pandemic comes from the chronicles of the Byzantine historian Procopius, who was the legal adviser to the general Belisarius. According to Procopius, the disease was first noticed in lower Egypt in 540, and travelled down the Nile to the harbour town of Pelusium, which was infected by a major rat problem. From there, it smashed through Alexandria and was then transported by ship, reaching Constantinople by 542. Procopius described the plague as “a pestilence by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated” which was an understandable view, given the appalling death rate.

Though the plague directly claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people in Constantinople, a significant number of souls perished indirectly through panic, disorder, starvation and murder. There were so many people dying each day that they could not be adequately disposed of, some being simply left in their houses to rot. When the initial bout of plague ended, some 40 percent of the city’s population had perished.

The plague spread very quickly through cities on the coast of the Mediterranean, but travelled inland much more slowly. However, over a period of six years it caused utter devastation, in turn, throughout Italy, Spain, France, the Rhine valley, Britain, and Denmark. Justinian’s attempt to restore the lost western empire utterly collapsed. All over Europe, the dead littered the streets, and the living prayed for their lives.

In Europe, the plague returned frequently, sometimes along with smallpox, typhoid, and various other killer diseases, through to around 590AD. Localised outbreaks of plague continued for a further 150 years, and, in all, the first bubonic plague pandemic lasted for around two hundred years. At the end of the pandemic, the population of Europe stood at only a half of what it was when it started; trade had almost ground to a halt, and social structures all over Europe were in a state of collapse. The plague, however, didn’t have the grace to confine itself to Europe; it travelled east, and eventually reached China in 610AD and recurred there for the next 200 years. The death toll in the east remains unknown, but it is safe to assume that it was at least as severe as that in Europe.

It took hundreds of years for humanity’s wounds to heal, in the mean time the Dark Ages prevailed!