William Rosen.
Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe.
New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.
The paperback edition is titled:
Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (2008).
Book information:
Book Website;
Publisher;
Google Books;
Amazon.com.
Paul Freedman, "
HIST 210: The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000" (
YouTube playlist), Open Yale Courses, Fall 2011.
Some Book Reviews:
- Ian Pindar, "Round the world on a rat," The Guardian, 04 May 2007.
- Raymond J. Dattwyler, Book Review, The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 357, pages 1354-1355, September 27, 2007.
- Eamon Duffy, "‘The First Great Pandemic in History’," The New York Review of Books, 29 May 2008.
This is not a review of Rosen's book but of another and more focused book published about a year before Rosen's: Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750. Lester K. Little, editor. Cambridge University Press, 2006 [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com].
Some Wikipedia Articles:
The book's title perhaps misleadingly suggests that the book is narrowly focusd on a plague episode during the reign of Justinian; instead, the book is a very quick survey of the Late Antiquity period, from the third to the seventh centuries, with the Plague of Justinian presented as one of several major turing points in the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
[Prologue, 540] : Pelusium;
History of Alexandria: Roman era;
Plague of Justinian.
[Ch One, 286-470] : Crisis of the Third Century (235-284);
Dominate (284-476);
Diocletian (r. 284-305);
Tetrarchy (293-313);
Constantine (r. 306-337);
Constantine the Great and Christianity;
Constantinople;
Byzantine Empire.
[Ch Two, 337-518] : Decline of the Roman Empire;
Western Roman Empire (285-480);
Fall of the Western Roman Empire; ----
Migration Period;
Goths;
Visigoths;
Ostrogoths; ----
Cassiodorus (c.485–c.585);
Jordanes (6th century) author of
Getica, a history of the Gothic people;
Ulfilas (c.310-383) Arian Christian bishop and missionary to the Goths; ----
Constantinian dynasty (r.293-363);
Julian (r.361-363);
Battle of Samarra (363);
Ammianus Marcellinus (320s-390s) author of
Res Gestae, available as
The Later Roman Empire: A.D. 354-378, Walter Hamilton, translator, Penguin Classics, 1986 [
Publisher;
Google Books;
Amazon.com];
Valens (r.364-378);
Battle of Adrianople (378);
Theodosius I (r.379-395), last single emperor of both western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire; ----
Honorius (r.395-423) western Roman Emperor;
Stilicho (c.359–408) considered along with Aetius the last great western Roman generals;
Alaric I (r.395–410) king of the Visigoths;
Sack of Rome (410) by the Visigoths;
Galla Placidia regent 421 or 423-437 for her son the western Emperor
Valentinian III (r.425-455) who, like Honorius to Stilicho, kills his best general
Aetius (c.396–454) who is credited with preventing further collapse of the western empire from the 430s to 454.
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy; ----
Huns;
Attila (d.453);
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451) Hun incursion into
Gaul halted and reversed; ----
Ricimer (c.405-472);
Odoacer, King of Ostrogoths 476-493;
Theodoric Strabo (d.481);
Ostrogothic Kingdom (493-553), successor to the extinguished Western Roman Empire;
Theoderic the Great (454-526) King of Ostrogothic Kingdom 493-526; ----
Theodosius II (r.408-450);
Marcian (r.450-457);
Leo I (r.457-474);
Zeno (r.474-475 and 476-491);
Anastasius (r.491-518); ----
State church of the Roman Empire.
[Ch Three, 518-530] : Boethius (c.480-524); ----
Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty;
Byzantine Empire;
Justin I (r.518-527);
Justinian I (r.527-565);
Theodora (c.500-548); ----
Belisarius (c.500-565);
Battle of Dara (530).
[Ch Four, 530-537] : Chariot racing: Byzantine era;
Hippodrome of Constantinople;
Horses of Saint Mark;
Nika riots (532);
Mundus (d.536);
Hagia Sophia;
Isidore of Miletus;
Anthemius of Tralles.
[Ch Five, 533-537] : John the Cappadocian (6th century);
Tribonian (c.485–547);
Corpus Juris Civilis also called the
Code of Justinian;
Novellae Constitutiones also called Justinian's Novels; English translations of these works:
Annotated Justinian Code by Fred H. Blume;
Justinian's Novels by Fred H. Blume.
[Ch Six, 533-540] : Vandals led by
Genseric (c.389-477) conquer the Roman province of
Africa in the 420s and 430s; ----
Belisarius (c.500-565);
Antonina (c.484–after 565);
Vandalic War (533-534) in which the Romans conquer
Africa;
Amalasuntha (c.495–534/535);
Gothic War (535–554) in which the Romans conquer the Ostrogothic Kingdom (and temporarily retake Italy);
Mundus (d.536);
Narses (478-573).
[Ch Seven] : Bacteria:
Yersinia pestis; Flea:
Xenopsylla cheopis also called the Oriental rat flea.
[Ch Eight] : Rat:
Rattus rattus also called the Black rat; Disease:
Bubonic plague;
Pneumonic plague;
Septicemic plague; Epidemiology:
Epidemiology;
Pandemic; Disease Dynamics:
Mathematical modelling of infectious disease.
[Ch Nine, 540-542] : Plague of Justinian;
Extreme weather events of 535–536, suggested as creating environmental conditions conducive to the spread of plague vectors;
Procopius (c.500–c.565).
[Ch Ten, 523-545] : Sassanid Empire;
Khosrau I (r.531–579);
Ctesiphon.
[Ch Eleven, 545-664] : Franks;
Merovingian dynasty (5th-8th centuries);
Clovis (c.466–511);
Gregory of Tours (c.538–594) author of
History of the Franks, Lewis Thorpe, translator, Penguin Classics, 1974 [
Publisher;
Google Books;
Amazon.com]. ----
End of Roman rule in Britain (383-410);
Anglo-Saxon England (400-1066);
Bede (672/673–735) aka the Venerable Bede; Bede documented episodes of plague in the British Isles during the Seventh Century in:
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (731)
Ecclesiastical History of the English People: (1) Leo Sherley-Price, translator, D. H. Farmer, editor, Penguin Classics, 1990 [
Publisher;
Google Books;
Amazon.com]; (2) Judith McClure and Roger Collins, translators, Oxford University Press, 2009 [
Publisher;
Google Books;
Amazon.com].
[Ch Twelve, 548-558] : Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.
[Ch Thirteen, 559-565] : Silk Road.
[Epilogue, 636] : Maurice (r.582-602);
Phocas (r.602-610);
Heraclius (r.610-641); ----
Muslim conquests;
Arab conquest of Roman Syria: 634–638;
Battle of Yarmouk (636);
Khalid ibn al-Walid (592–642) aka the Sword of Allah.
Bibliographical Note (pages 347-349):
- Peter Brown. The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989 (First published: London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1971). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Warren Treadgold. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press, 1997. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- John Julius Norwich. Byzantium: The Early Centuries. New York: Knopf, 1989. [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Averil Cameron. The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity: AD 395-700, second edition. Abingdon, UK & New York: Routledge, 2012. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Edward Gibbon. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 1776-1789. [Wikipedia; The Online Library of Liberty.]
- J. B. Bury. History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, two volumes. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1958 (first published: London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1923). [Publisher, volume one; Publisher, volume two; Google Books, volume one; Google Books, volume two; Amazon.com, volume one; Amazon.com, volume two.]
- A. H. M. Jones. The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986 (first published: 1964 in four volumes). [Google Books, volume one; Google Books, volume two; Amazon.com, two volume set.]
- The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian. Michael Maas, editor. Cambridge University Press, 2005. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Readings in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook, second edition. Michael Maas, editor. Abingdon, UK & New York: Routledge, 2010. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Byzantine Studies Program, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
Print and Digital Resources for Scholars, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
Byzantine Online Publications, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press.
- Robert Browning. Justinian and Theodora. 1971; 1987; 2003. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Herwig Wolfram. History of the Goths. Thomas J. Dunlap, translator. University of California Press, 1990. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- L. H. Fauber. Narses: Hammer of the Goths. Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1990; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. [Google Books; AbeBooks.com; Amazon.com.]
- R. J. Mainstone. Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure, Liturgy of Justinian's Great Church. London: Thames & Hudson, 1988 (paperback 2002). [Google Books; AbeBooks.com; Amazon.com.]
- Tony Honore. Tribonian. Cornell University Press, 1978. [Google Books; AbeBooks.com; Amazon.com.]
- J. A. S. Evans. Procopius. Twayne Publishers or Irvington Publishers, 1972. [Google Books; AbeBooks.com; Amazon.com.]
- Richard N. Frye. The History of Ancient Iran. Munchen: Beck, 1984. [Google Books; AbeBooks.com; Amazon.com.]
- Wendy Orent. Plague. New York: Free Press (Simon and Schuster), 2004; 2012. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- William H. McNeill. Plagues and Peoples. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1976; New York: Random House, 1989; 1998. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Byzantine Studies, edited by Paul Halsall.
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook, edited by Paul Halsall.
- Overview of Late Antiquity by Steven Muhlberger, Professor of History, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario.
- Online Textbook of Bacteriology by Kenneth Todar.
- John of Ephesus (c.507–c.586), Ecclesiastical History.
- Evagrius Scholasticus (6th century), Ecclesiastical History.
- Prokopios aka Procopius of Caesarea (c.500–c.565):
- Anekdota or The Secret History:
(1) The Secret History with related texts. Anthony Kaldellis, translator. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2010. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
(2) The Secret History. G. A. Williamson, translator; Peter Sarris, editor. Penguin Classics, 1966; 2007. [Publisher, UK; Publisher, USA; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
(3) Secret History. H. B. Dewing, translator. Loeb Classical Library, number 290.
- History of the Wars. Loeb Classical Library, numbers 48, 81, 107, 173, 217.
- On Buildings. Loeb Classical Library, number 343.
Other Books and Articles
on the same period and topics as Rosen's book, mostly published after Rosen wrote his book:
- Nicholas Wade, "Europe’s Plagues Came From China, Study Finds," The New York Times, 11 October 2010.
- Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750. Lester K. Little, editor. Cambridge University Press, 2006. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Averil Cameron. Procopius and the Sixth Century. Routledge, 1996 (first published: London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd, 1985). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Gillian Clark. Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2011. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- J. A. S. Evans. The Age of Justinian: The Circumstances of Imperial Power. London: Routledge, 2000 (first published: 1996). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Peter Heather. The Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 (first published: London: Macmillan, 2005). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Peter Heather. Empires and Barbarians. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012 (first published: London: Macmillan, 2009). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Peter Heather. The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders. London: Macmillan, 2013. [Amazon.co.uk.]
- Anthony Kaldellis. Procopius of Caesarea: Tyranny, History, and Philosophy at the End of Antiquity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Peter Sarris. Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian. Cambridge University Press, 2009 (first published: 2006). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Peter Sarris. Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, 500-700. Oxford University Press, 2011. [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Julia Smith. Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History, 500-1000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 (first published: 2005). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Bryan Ward-Perkins. The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006 (first published: 2005). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Chris Wickham. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 (first published: 2005). [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Chris Wickham. The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000. New York: Viking Penguin, 2009. [Publisher, UK; Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]