Go offline with the Player FM app!
The Plague of Justinian
Manage episode 282818967 series 1301213
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the plague that broke out in Constantinople 541AD, in the reign of Emperor Justinian. According to the historian Procopius, writing in Byzantium at the time, this was a plague by which the whole human race came near to being destroyed, embracing the whole world, and blighting the lives of all mankind. The bacterium behind the Black Death has since been found on human remains from that time, and the symptoms described were the same, and evidence of this plague has since been traced around the Mediterranean and from Syria to Britain and Ireland. The question of how devastating it truly was, though, is yet to be resolved.
With
John Haldon Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies Emeritus at Princeton University
Rebecca Flemming Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge
And
Greg Woolf Director of the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
1119 episodes
Manage episode 282818967 series 1301213
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the plague that broke out in Constantinople 541AD, in the reign of Emperor Justinian. According to the historian Procopius, writing in Byzantium at the time, this was a plague by which the whole human race came near to being destroyed, embracing the whole world, and blighting the lives of all mankind. The bacterium behind the Black Death has since been found on human remains from that time, and the symptoms described were the same, and evidence of this plague has since been traced around the Mediterranean and from Syria to Britain and Ireland. The question of how devastating it truly was, though, is yet to be resolved.
With
John Haldon Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies Emeritus at Princeton University
Rebecca Flemming Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge
And
Greg Woolf Director of the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
1119 episodes
All episodes
×Welcome to Player FM!
Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.