Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire

From the acclaimed author of Miracle Cure and The Third Horseman, the epic story of the collision between one of nature's smallest organisms and history's 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, Justinian's Flea is a unique and sweeping account of the little known event that changed the course of a continent.

Author: William Rosen
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 08/01/2008
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780143113812
ISBN10: 014311381X
BISAC Categories:
- History | Europe | Medieval
- Medical | History
- Medical | Infectious Diseases

About the Author
William Rosen, author of Miracle Cure, The Third Horseman, Justinian's Flea, and The Most Powerful Idea in the World, was an editor and a publisher at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and the Free Press for nearly twenty-five years.