Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire | 
 enlarge | Author: William Rosen
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 497370
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 014311381X
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9780143113812
ASIN: 014311381X
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
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Product Description
The epic story of the collision between one of natures smallest organisms and historys mightiest empire
During the golden age of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian reigned over a territory that stretched from Italy to North Africa. It was the zenith of his achievements and the last of them. In 542 AD, the bubonic plague struck. In weeks, the glorious classical world of Justinian had been plunged into the medieval and modern Europe was born.
At its height, five thousand people died every day in Constantinople. Cities were completely depopulated. It was the first pandemic the world had ever known and it left its indelible mark: when the plague finally ended, more than 25 million people were dead. Weaving together history, microbiology, ecology, jurisprudence, theology, and epidemiology, Justinians Flea is a unique and sweeping account of the little known event that changed the course of a continent.
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An Excellent History Of The End Of One World And The Beginning Of Another October 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
William Rosen has produced a very fine history of the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, often regarded as the greatest of the Byzantine Emperors. Justinian ruled the Byzantine Empire during the 500s, a period which is often regarded as the end of the classical era and the beginning of what Europeans refer to as the Middle Ages.
Rosen is a gifted writer with an excellent ability to create an illuminating anecdote which sums up a life, a city, or a culture in just a few paragraphs or pages. He provides a lot of fascinating material on a variety of subjects pertaining to Justinian and his reign, including the difficulties the Byzantines encountered while constructing the massive basilica of Hagia Sophia, or the consequences of the reorganization of Roman law and legal precedent which created the Corpus Juris Civilis, still the basis for much of Western law to this day. Most impressively, Rosen is able to make his readers recognize the horror of the pandemic which struck much of the Mediterranean world during Justinian's reign, and to understand that we are still living with the long term consequences of that massive disease outbreak.
While Rosen is not a professional historian but rather a publishing executive, Justinian's Flea is both scholarly and accessible, and deserves a place on the bookshelves of everyone who is fascinated by the past and intrigued by the still present after effects of long ago events.
Heavy, but Good September 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wasn't planning on reading this book at all. Merely saw it on a friend's table yesterday, got curious, and asked if I could read it before she did. Now I feel as if I've eaten a 10-course meal in the space of 20 minutes.
This era of history is not usually my thing. I was an International Studies major in college, so I of course covered it in my history classes, and I taught it to my world history students, but it's not an era I would seek out books upon. However, I was fascinated by _Pox Americana_ (I've read it twice as research for my WIP), and the title of this book sounded like it was similar. It wasn't really. But in this case, that isn't a bad thing, because Rosen provided a buffet of information so well presented that you don't need a background in history to take it in.
His bottom line is this: (from the back cover blurb)
"It was the golden age of Emperor Justinian, who, from his glorious capital of Constantinople, united and reigned over an empire stretching from Italy to North Africa. It was the zenith of his achievements--and the last of them.
In A.D. 542, the bubonic plague struck. In weeks, the glorious classical world of Justinian was plunged into chaos, and the beginings of a medieval Europe were born."
However, the plague itself only occupies perhaps a quarter of the book. The rest of it is background, side-plots, and connections to other ideas and future events. Rosen follows a common thread, loops off on a connected idea, but always manages to bring the reader back the main thread before they get too lost.
In the course of the book, Rosen covers "history, microbiology, ecology, jurisprudence, theology, and epidemiology," not to mention tidbits of architecture, art, trade, politics, medicine, and numerous other subjects. Whether he was discussing the changing tactics of warfare or the warring theologies of the early Christian Church (Arian vs. Monophysite vs. orthodoxy/Catholic), his writing went down so smoothly that I almost wasn't aware of how much I was taking in at times. The only sections that I found hard to chew was when he went into great detail about the evolution and biology of Yersinia pestis, that is, bubonic plague.
_Justinian's Flea_ is heavy reading, but not overwhelmingly so. It appeals both to serious students of history as well as to the curiosity of the "layman."
Grade: A/A+
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