Confronting Pandemic in Late Antiquity: The Medical Response to the Justinianic Plague, 2021
From the sixth to the eighth centuries, the Roman world suffered the first known pandemic caused ... more From the sixth to the eighth centuries, the Roman world suffered the first known pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of bubonic plague. Despite the pandemic's horrors, scholarly consensus has maintained that medical authors took no notice of the Justinianic Pandemic. This article introduces the first evidence that physicians at the time of the Justinianic Pandemic described the illness that raged around them. Through a close analysis of the language used by contemporary historians to describe the symptoms of the pandemic, it is possible to uncover discussions of the pandemic in medical literature that have remained hidden in plain sight. Specifically, this article argues that the sixth-and seventh-century physicians John of Alexandria, Stephanus of Athens, and Paul of Aegina not only describe the illness of the pandemic, but also develop sophisticated ways of diagnosing the illness, understanding it physiologically, and treating it. In so doing, these authors go beyond medical precedent to construct innovative responses to an unprecedented pandemic. The Justinianic Plague, the first historically recorded plague pandemic, first struck the Roman Empire at the port city of Pelusium in ad 541. From there the disease spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, recurring in successive outbreaks for over two centuries. 1 The Justinianic Plague is widely This article grows out of research conducted as part of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM). An early version of this article was presented at the École française de Rome as part of the 2019 conference "Les maladies infectieuses dans l'antiquité: Sources écrites et archives bio-archéologiques." This article is deeply indebted to the generous suggestions and comments of many readers. I would like in particular to thank Michael McCormick, whose direction on this project has been invaluable, Julia Judge-Mulhall, Kyle Harper, Lee Mordechai, Merle Eisenberg, and the two anonymous referees for the Journal of Late Antiquity. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to Dumbarton Oaks, which supported my research on this project through the William R. Tyler Fellowship. 1 For some of the most recent surveys and general studies of the Justinianic Plague, see Stathako
Plague before the Pandemics: The Greek Medical Evidence for Bubonic Plague before the Sixth Century, 2019
Recent biomolecular evidence has proven that Yersinia pestis, the pathogen that causes bubonic pl... more Recent biomolecular evidence has proven that Yersinia pestis, the pathogen that causes bubonic plague, was infecting human hosts in Eurasia as early as the Bronze Age, far earlier than previously believed. It remains an open question, however, whether bubonic plague was affecting Mediterranean populations of classical antiquity. This article evaluates the textual evidence for bubonic plague in classical antiquity from medical sources and discusses methodologies for "retrospective diagnosis" in light of new developments in microbiology. A close study of Greek medical texts suggests that bubonic plague was unfamiliar to medical writers until sometime before the second century AD, when sources cited by Rufus of Ephesus report a disease that resembles bubonic plague. Rufus of Ephesus describes this disease around AD 100, and Aretaeus (fl. ca. AD 50 or 150) appears to describe the same disease as well. Intriguingly, the disease then disappears from our sources until late antiquity.
Confronting Pandemic in Late Antiquity: The Medical Response to the Justinianic Plague, 2021
From the sixth to the eighth centuries, the Roman world suffered the first known pandemic caused ... more From the sixth to the eighth centuries, the Roman world suffered the first known pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of bubonic plague. Despite the pandemic's horrors, scholarly consensus has maintained that medical authors took no notice of the Justinianic Pandemic. This article introduces the first evidence that physicians at the time of the Justinianic Pandemic described the illness that raged around them. Through a close analysis of the language used by contemporary historians to describe the symptoms of the pandemic, it is possible to uncover discussions of the pandemic in medical literature that have remained hidden in plain sight. Specifically, this article argues that the sixth-and seventh-century physicians John of Alexandria, Stephanus of Athens, and Paul of Aegina not only describe the illness of the pandemic, but also develop sophisticated ways of diagnosing the illness, understanding it physiologically, and treating it. In so doing, these authors go beyond medical precedent to construct innovative responses to an unprecedented pandemic. The Justinianic Plague, the first historically recorded plague pandemic, first struck the Roman Empire at the port city of Pelusium in ad 541. From there the disease spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, recurring in successive outbreaks for over two centuries. 1 The Justinianic Plague is widely This article grows out of research conducted as part of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM). An early version of this article was presented at the École française de Rome as part of the 2019 conference "Les maladies infectieuses dans l'antiquité: Sources écrites et archives bio-archéologiques." This article is deeply indebted to the generous suggestions and comments of many readers. I would like in particular to thank Michael McCormick, whose direction on this project has been invaluable, Julia Judge-Mulhall, Kyle Harper, Lee Mordechai, Merle Eisenberg, and the two anonymous referees for the Journal of Late Antiquity. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to Dumbarton Oaks, which supported my research on this project through the William R. Tyler Fellowship. 1 For some of the most recent surveys and general studies of the Justinianic Plague, see Stathako
Plague before the Pandemics: The Greek Medical Evidence for Bubonic Plague before the Sixth Century, 2019
Recent biomolecular evidence has proven that Yersinia pestis, the pathogen that causes bubonic pl... more Recent biomolecular evidence has proven that Yersinia pestis, the pathogen that causes bubonic plague, was infecting human hosts in Eurasia as early as the Bronze Age, far earlier than previously believed. It remains an open question, however, whether bubonic plague was affecting Mediterranean populations of classical antiquity. This article evaluates the textual evidence for bubonic plague in classical antiquity from medical sources and discusses methodologies for "retrospective diagnosis" in light of new developments in microbiology. A close study of Greek medical texts suggests that bubonic plague was unfamiliar to medical writers until sometime before the second century AD, when sources cited by Rufus of Ephesus report a disease that resembles bubonic plague. Rufus of Ephesus describes this disease around AD 100, and Aretaeus (fl. ca. AD 50 or 150) appears to describe the same disease as well. Intriguingly, the disease then disappears from our sources until late antiquity.
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