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Justinian's Flea

Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe

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Justinian's Flea

Written by: William Rosen
Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
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The emperor Justinian reunified Rome's fractured empire by defeating the Goths and Vandals who had separated Italy, Spain, and North Africa from imperial rule. At his capital in Constantinople, he built the world's most beautiful building, married the most powerful empress, and wrote the empire's most enduring legal code, seemingly restoring Rome's fortunes for the next five hundred years. Then, in the summer of 542, he encountered a flea. The ensuing outbreak of bubonic plague killed 5,000 people a day in Constantinople and nearly killed Justinian himself.

In Justinian's Flea, William Rosen tells the story of history's first pandemic - a plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, left a path of victims from Ireland to Iraq, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, Rosen offers a sweeping narrative of one of the great hinge moments in history, one that will appeal to readers of John Kelly's The Great Mortality, John Barry's The Great Influenza, and Jared Diamond's Collapse.

©2007 William Rosen; (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc. Ancient Europe Greece Medicine & Health Care Industry Rome Middle Ages Africa Middle East Italy Imperialism Iran Military Renaissance
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Great book, covers a lot but very well written and engaging. I do highly recommend

Excellent story

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This was a great book, it covers a lot of very interesting details about the battles, culture, and politics of the empire under Justinian and his greatest general, Belisarius. As well as its inevitable decline after the decimation incurred by the plague. Absolutely worth getting if the topic interests you!

Very informative!

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