Then, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, one of the coldest periods in the past 2000 years heralded a wave of pandemics starting with the Plague of Justinian in the 540s.

A new study suggests the Byzantine Empire’s decline wasn’t caused by the Justinian Plague, but may have even experienced a population boom.

Witness accounts abound for the Justinian Plague and the Black Death, but the prehistoric strain remains an enigma. “How did it spread?” Dr. Harper said. “How did it affect people?

The Justinian Plague, which struck in 541 AD, may have killed as many as 25 million. Now, scientists say the outbreak probably originated in Asia, not Egypt as contemporary and more recent ...

A recent study published in the journal Klio by researchers Haggai Olshanetsky and Lev Cosijns analyzes the true causes of ...

In the wake of one of history's most devastating epidemics of bubonic plague, the Byzantine emperor Justinian enacts a law meant to hinder and isolate people arriving from plague-infested regions.

Justinian’s Flea is an interdisciplinary account of the first pandemic the world had ever known—the bubonic plague of 541 to ...

Justinian’s last 25 years, 540-565, were dominated by issues all too familiar to us today: severe ideological stress and strain; climate change; plague; and, military setbacks. He became ...

archaeology and epidemiology of the so-called Plague of Justinian, the first historically documented pandemic of bubonic plague in history. His most recent publication is Indispensable Immigrants: The ...