RUDIMENTS 1038.

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,038

('so where will I go, and who will I follow?')

Well. Sidetrack here. One day

away. Let's not talk about

me! 'What's often referred to 

as the first pandemic began 

in the city of Pelusium, near

modern-day Port Said, in

northwestern Egypt. Year 541.'

(Hmmm, that equals 10; a

curiously final number, for

so many beginnings). You

know, in our language we

say 'said.' Like 'He said...'

But this is pronounced

'Sayeed,' Like 'hayseed' 

sorta . The historian

Procopius said the 

pestilence 'spread both

west, toward Alexandraia,

and east, toward Palestine.'

Then it kept going. In

his view, it seemed to move

almost consciously, as if

fearing lest some corner

of the Earth might escape 

it. (OK. 'Procopius,' would

not that mean, like, 'For a 

Lot?' Maybe. As opposed

to that other Historian 

named 'Antiplentius,' 

meaning  opposed to a 

lot? Well could be. You

know those old Romans). 

-

The earliest symptom of

the pestilence was fever.

Often, Procopius observed,

this was so mild that 'it did

not afford any suspicion

of danger.' But within a few

days victims developed the

classic symptoms of Bubonic

Plague  -  lumps, or buboes,

in their groin and under

their arms. The suffering, 

at that point, was terrible. 

Some people went into a 

coma, others into violent

delirium. Many vomited

blood. Those who attended

to the sick were in a constant

state of exhaustion. 'For this

reason,' Procopois said, 

'everybody pitied them no

less than the sufferers.' No

one could predict who was

going to perish and who 

would pull through. 

-

In early 1542, that plague

then struck Constantinople,

at that time the capital of the

Eastern Roman Empire, which

was led by the Emperor Justinian.

'One of the greatest statesmen

who ever lived,' and his reign

was a flurry, (the first part of

it anyway), of action 'virtually

unparalleled in Roman history.'

He ruled for some 40 years.

In his first 15, pestilence-free

years, he codified Roman law,

made peace with the Persians,

overhauled the Eastern Empire's

finances, and built Hagia Sophia.

But as the plague raged, it also

fell to him to 'make provision

for the trouble.' He paid for the

bodies of the abandoned and

the destitute to be buried. Even

so, it was impossible to keep 

up; the death toll was too high.

(10,000 a day). Another

contemporary, John of Ephesus,

wrote that 'Nobody would go

out of doors without a tag

upon which his name was

written,' in case he was

suddenly stricken. Eventually

bodies were just tossed into

fortifications at the edge of

the city. The plague hit everyone,

high or lowly, and Justinian

too contracted it, but survived.

His rule, however, never

really recovered  -  he couldn't

recruit soldiers, nor pay them. 

The territories began to revolt;

the plaque then reached Rome

in 543, and seems to have made

it all the way to Britain by 544.

Constantinople, in 558; a third

time in 573; and still again in

586. It became known as 'The

Justinian Plague,' and didn't

burn itself out until 750. By

that time there was a new world

order : Islam had arisen, a

powerful new religion, and its

leaders ruled territories that

included a great deal of what

had been Justinian's empire,

along with the Arabian peninsula.

The rest of 'Europe' had come

under the control of the Franks;

much if it anyway. Rome had 

been reduced to about 30,000 

people. 'History is written not 

only by men, but also 

by microbes.'

-

There are many ways for 

microbes to infect a body, 

AND there just as many ways

for epidemics to play out in 

the body-politic. Epidemics

can be short-lived or protracted,

or  -  like the Justinian plague  -  

recurrent. Often they partner

with war; sometimes the pairing

favors the aggressor, sometimes

the aggressed.  Epidemic diseases

can become endemic, which is

to say constantly present, only

to become epidemic again when

they're carried to a new region

or when conditions change.

(The next chapter will cover

Smallpox and Exploration).

As a lead in to that : "The 

word quarantine comes from 

the Italian quaranta, meaning 

'Forty.' As Frank M. Snowden 

explains, in 'Epidemics and

Society,' the practice of quarantine

originated long before people 

understood what, exactly, they

were trying to contain, and the

period of forty days was chosen

not for medical reasons but for

scriptural ones, as both the Old and

New Testaments make multiple

references to the number forty

in the context of purification:

the forty days and forty nights

of the Flood in Genesis; the forty

years of the Israelites wandering

in the wilderness...and the

forty days of Lent.'