The Plague of Justinian, the first recorded bubonic pandemic
- Date
- 541–549 CE
- Category
- Social & demographic
- Region
- Mediterranean and Near East
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
First appearing in Roman Egypt in 541 and reaching Constantinople in 542, the Plague of Justinian was the earliest historically documented pandemic of bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Spread along Mediterranean grain and trade routes, it swept through the Byzantine capital, where the historian Procopius described thousands dying each day at its height, and Justinian himself fell ill but recovered. The pandemic radiated across the Mediterranean, the Near East and into Europe, with recurrent waves continuing for two centuries. Modern estimates of the death toll vary enormously, from a few million to tens of millions, and scholars now debate whether its demographic impact was as catastrophic as once believed. Even so, it struck at the moment Justinian was attempting to reunite the Roman world, draining manpower and revenue, contributing to the failure to hold the western reconquests, and weakening both the Byzantine and Sasanian empires on the eve of the Arab conquests. It marks the start of the First Plague Pandemic.
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Empires active in 541–549 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Kingdom of Funan50 CE – 550 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kingdom of Aksum100 CE – 940 CE
- Classic Maya Civilization250 CE – 900 CE
- Hephthalite Empire440 CE – 560 CE
Related social & demographic events
- Collapse and Burning of Teotihuacanc. 550 CE
- Collapse of the Classic Maya lowland city-statesc. 800–900 CE
- Zanj Rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate869-883 CE
- Banu Hilal Migration Arabises the Maghrebc. 1050 onward (11th century)
- Rise of Cahokia, the largest city of Mississippian North Americac. 1050 CE
- The Black Death sweeps Europe, North Africa and the Middle East1347–1351 CE
Further reading
The wider story
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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