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40 Things About The Outlandish Math Cult Leader, and Other Unusual Facts From the Ancient World

Khalid Elhassan May 22, 2020 33 min

Democritus and Protagoras - Odysseus and Nausicaa (Ulysses and Nausicaa) — 'Pythagoras and the Fishermen', by Salvatore Rosa. Wikimedia

3. The Pandemic That Ended the Ancient Era

The medieval era’s Black Death was history’s deadliest pandemic. However, the Plague of Justinian, 541 – 542 AD, gives it a run for its money in lethality and consequences. It was named after the East Roman Emperor Justinian I, during whose reign it occurred – and who survived getting infected with it. It swept across three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, making it history’s first recorded pandemic.

The Plague of Justinian, like the Black Death, was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium. Also like the Black Death, the Plague of Justinian struck with a devastating initial outbreak, followed by several recurrences in succeeding years. By the time the last recurrence ended and the Plague of Justinian had died out, 25 million to 100 million people had perished.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.