Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe

William Rosen's "Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire" seems to be about everything except "The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire." Rosen definitely channels his inner Tom Clancy and Herman Melville. There are long descriptions of architectural flourishes, military maneuvers, and Persian kings, but very little about the plague. This book would have been better titled "Western Rome in Late Antiquity."

When boats arrived in Constantinople from Egypt in 541 AD, they weren’t carrying just exotic foods and trinkets. Rats and fleas from the lower holds scrambled into the new landscape, and with them came the plague. The disease swept through port cities, leaving corpses riddled with black buboes in its wake. At its peak, ten thousand people a day died in Constantinople. William Rosen’s Justinian’s Flea takes a look at the damage this microscopic agent caused to humans and how that affected history for centuries to come.

William Rosen is a great editor in his own right, but when he writes, his real talent comes out. Deftly combining history, medicine, sociology, and religion, Rosen posits that a major factor in the demise of the Roman show more Empire was the convergence between the first outbreak of bubonic plague and the weakened state of the Roman army. The book starts off slow, with a complete history of the empire between Diocletian and Justinian, then gets really good with an in-depth analysis of the evolution of the plague virus. A slowish but ultimately rewarding read. show less

This is a good telling of Emperor Justinian's reign at the end of the Roman era. But . . .
I'm peeved by the title: 'Justinian's Flea' suggested to me a book about the plague and how it affected Justinian's time as Emperor, but the book is really a history of the Roman empire during Justinian's rule. The plague is merely a bit part in that telling. I was going to blame the publishers for tarting up a bland history with a nifty title, until I found that the author is not a professional historian, and his first career was in publishing!
But I still enjoyed the book. I learned more than I ever expected to know about the very late stages of the Roman Empire. The author gives life to key players, while not going too far past the limited source show more documentary evidence. show less

You might think a book titled "Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire" would be about...well, plague. That's why I read it, because I'm interested in microbiology and historical epidemic nonfiction. Sadly, plague doesn't even make an appearance in the book until 160+ pages into the book. The first half of the book is a broad, sweeping account of several hundred years of European history. Which is fine, if the book had been marketed as a European History book, but the cover/title/synopsis all say plague, plague, plague...and it's actually a minor part of the book.

Even when the author does finally get to the topic of disease, he spends tons of time giving a broad, sweeping account (again) of microbiology show more in general. While I enjoyed this significantly more than the first half of the book, it still wasn't why I was reading the thing in the first place.

Justinian's Flea is severely lacking in focus. It's so...well, broad, and sweeping, and the author tries way too hard to cram more into the book than the 330 pages allow. The result is a skipping, stuttering, and frequently off-topic narrative that is a chore to read. There is a lot of interesting tidbits scattered throughout the book, but overall I was quite disappointed by it. show less

A lively re-telling of the real transition from Late Antiquity into the medieval world in the days of Justinian.

The author vividly tells the story of how the Roman Empire got to the point of having Justinian as Emperor; he describes the situation by which Justinian ascended to the purple and then the exploits of the early part of his reign. Africa and Italy are recovered for the Empire; things seem to be going well for the Empire.

Yet, as indicated from the beginning, a plague is on the horizon. The author also describes what was known at his time regarding the development of Y. pestis and what it did to people. He then described how the plague overtook the Roman Empire and the devastation it wrought. The epilogue considers the later show more battle at Yarmuk between Heraclius' forces and the Muslim invaders and how the Empire lost most of its territory, and its ancient heart, in no small part as an effect of the plague.

The historical narrative here is generally excellent, but its pathogenesis and discussion of the plague itself could use some updating; Kyle Harper spends a lot of time talking about what we have learned about the plague since, and agrees about the devastation and import of the black plague. The role of the ferret, the newest and best theory of the real catalyst for black death outbreaks, is not really manifest here.

A great narrative which could use a refresh/update for the 2020s. show less

Well written, well researched and informative. If you are just looking for a book about the plague you will get a lot more in thus book - the history of Justinian and how he became emperor; the various people who were migrating into the fractured Roman Empire; how and why the plague became an epidemic and the history of the time of various other empires, Persian and Chinese. This is a wide ranging variety of subjects but Rosen's talent means that all the pieces do come together. Definitely gave me a picture of the Sixth Century world.

The great plague of the 6th century AD.

Interesting but not quite what I was expecting. The first half of the book is a quick run through the history of the Roman Empire from Diocletian onwards as a retrospective, slowing down when we reach Justinian himself, halting in 540.

The second half starts off with the bacteriology of the plague and then takes through the plague itself and some of its effects. We then continue with the reign of Justinian and finish off with the effects of the plague not spreading to Arabia and China. In an epilogue, we look at the early Islamic conquests and then indulge in some counterfactual speculation as to what would have happened if there had been no outbreak of plague in the 6th century.

The author is show more completely unable to see a rabbit hole without going down it (however interesting did we really need an excursus on the architecture of Hagia Sophia?). I enjoyed it but would have liked more about the plague itself, attempts by doctors to deal with it, and people's reactions than we got (about 10 - 20% of the book). But then perhaps there isn't that much evidence. A lot more Justinian than flea despite the title. show less