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Flashcards in Justinian's Plague Deck (19)
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1
Q

Three Bubonic Plague outbreaks

A

1) Justinian’s Plague: 541 to mid eighth century
2) Medieval Black Death: 1346, revisitation in 17c
3) Hunan Province, China: 1855

2
Q

Origins of Y. Pestis (2)

A
  • Originated in Tibetan Plateau, diverted from Y. Pseudo-Tuberculosis
  • Discovered by Person in 19c
3
Q

How can it spread to humans? (3)

A
  • humans invade animal habitats (famine, war, etc)
  • humans hunt animals
  • animals invade human areas (floods, earthquakes, etc)
4
Q

How can fleas spread it to humans? (3)

A
  • fleas jump to human hosts if rat dies
  • uninfected flea can go 6 weeks between blood meals
  • can spread through human flea as well as the oriental flea
5
Q

How can humans spread it to each other? (3)

A
  • sharing beds
  • selling used clothes
  • attending to a corpse
6
Q

How long does incubation take after a bite?

A

1-7 days

7
Q

What are the symptoms? (3)

A
  • swelling in lymphatic system (armpits, groin, neck)
  • fever, shivering, nausea, thirst
  • death within several days of buboes appearing
8
Q

What are the modes of infection? (4)

A
  • ingestion
  • bubonic: infected by a bite
  • pneumatic: infects the lungs
  • septicemic: introduced directly into the blood
9
Q

Dates for the Justinianic Plague

A

541 - mid 8c

10
Q

Aims of Justinian and how he accomplished them

A
  • Wanted to regain control of the Western Empire

- Reconquered Ravenna in 540

11
Q

How did the Roman agricultural plan lead to the plague?

A

In imposing their will on the landscape, they exposed themselves to the wilderness where the disease was

12
Q

What was unique about Roman cities and towns that lead to spread of plague? (2)

A
  • very well connected

- people lived in very close quarters and in poor conditions

13
Q

Little Ice Age and a Year Without Summer (3)

A

LIA: 450-700CE
YWS: 536
- Disrupted the animal habitats, potentially drove rodents into human ones

14
Q

Procopius and his eyes-witness testimony (6)

A
  • d. 565
  • said plague started in Egypt, then moved into Interior Europe from the coastlines
  • confusing symptoms: some vomited blood but died without other symptoms, swelling, fever
  • massive death toll, fortifications filled with dead people
  • breakdown in society: 1/2 population dead, standstill of society, stench
  • omens: foretelling individuals deaths, apparitions
15
Q

Impact of the plague on the Byzantine Empire (4)

A
  • deflation post 540s
  • agrarian depopulation, Justinian still tried to tax them just was much
  • 3 years after Justinian died, Lombards poured over Alps
  • plague reached almost all off Spain, Ireland, Gaul, Britain (patchy evidence tho)
16
Q

St Sebastian (2)

A
  • martyred 288. Shot with arrows but did not die

- 680: man hard vision that plague wouldn’t stop until an altar was set up for St Sebastian at St Peter in Chains

17
Q

Christian Rationale for Justinanic Plague (2)

A
  • God’s wrath ‘fell upon cities like a winepress’: John of Ephesus
  • God’s will, not his punishment. St Aethyltryth had the plague, after all - Bede
18
Q

Hippocratic Theory

A

Miasma. Adopted by Galen too

19
Q

Gregory of Tours

A

d. 594
- plague was God’s anger
- His uncle, Bishop of Clermont, prayed for his people and an angel said that they would be saved
- ‘saw his entire flock being struck down by God’s wrath’ in sermon