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Justinianic Plague
Historical Event
The First Recorded Pandemic in History
Historical Accuracy
Real, well-documented historical pandemic. Any supernatural cause portrayed in the series is fictional.
Historical Significance
Sources:
Procopius, History of the Wars; modern epidemiological and historical scholarship on the Justinianic Plague (e.g., Lester K. Little, ed., Plague and the End of Antiquity).
The Justinianic Plague of 541–542 AD was the first recorded pandemic in history, killing as much as half of Constantinople's population within months.
Historical Era
541–542 AD · Constantinople
Book II
Novel Canon Role:
The plague forms the central crisis of Book II's Act III, testing Merona, the Church Hospital, and the city itself. The Atlas entry should promise catastrophe without disclosing how Merona responds to it.
541–542 AD · Constantinople
Caused by Yersinia pestis; first recorded pandemic in world history.
Struck Constantinople in 541–542 AD, within Book II's immediate timeframe.
Chronicled firsthand by the historian Procopius.
justinianic-plague
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