![[Gothic_Battle_of_Mons_Lactarius_on_Vesuvius.jpg]] *Gothic and Byzantine battle in Italy* The Plague of Justinian was long believed to have been an outbreak of *Yersinia pestis*, the same bacterium that caused the Black Death in the later Middle Ages. This suspicion has been validated recently by genetic analysis of remains buried in plague pits. A much earlier pandemic with the same cause seems to have coincided with the spread of the Yamanya into Europe, so this is a pestilence that has been killing humans for millennia. The bacterium lives in the digestive tracts of fleas which are carried by rats that typically stow away on ships. This particular outbreak seems to have been first noticed in the port of Pelusium, where Egyptian grain was loaded onto ships. Ironically, General Belisarius' defeat of the Vandal Kingdom, restoring North Africa to Byzantine rule and securing grain supplies, probably enabled the spread of the disease. By 542 it had spread to Constantinople; from there it radiated into the Mediterranean world. This outbreak seems to have been a bubonic rather than pneumonic plague. The bacteria attacked the lymph system, resulting in fevers, egg-shaped, black buboes as the lymph nodes in victims' armpits and groins became overwhelmed, delirium, and a death rate of about 50%. Contemporary historians claimed that more than half the population of Constantinople died, with death rates reaching between 5,000 and 10,000 daily. In other cities such as Rome and Ravenna, plague killed up to 40%; while as many as 20% of country people died. These types of losses, added to the impact of the Gothic War, lend some credence to the claim that up to half the Italian population was wiped out in the 540s. ----- Next: [[9.6 - Lombards]] Back: [[9.4 - Gothic War]]