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.'
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