On Periodization of the Justinian Plague

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52575/2687-0967-2025-52-1-58-68

Keywords:

Justinian's plague, periodization, pandemic, Evagrius Scholastic, pandemic cycles

Abstract

The article presents the first attempt in the Russian historiography to periodize the Justinian plague. It is based on the concept of researchers G. Hezer and M. V. Supotnitsky about the 7–20-year cycles of the pandemic, based on a short story by Evagrius Scholastic from Book IV of the Church History. As a result, it is proposed to divide the pandemic into 11 cycles, which cover the time frame from 541 to 750. Additionally, the “Justinian plague” narrative seems to be very important for the history of the Byzantine literature. Each new cycle of the pandemic, in conjunction with other shocks of that time, creates a general picture of chaos and destruction in the era of the "Dark Ages". The separation of the "classical Justinian plague" and the "long plague" period seems to be an important narrative in the history of Byzantine literature. Along with the widespread use of the chronicle genre, colossal shifts in the worldview of intellectuals of that era are obvious, where the plague is God's indulgence for the mortal sins of contemporaries.

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Author Biographies

Anton V. Zibaev, Surgut State University

Candidate of Sciences in History, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Humanitarian Education and Sports, Surgut State University,
Surgut, Russia
ORCID: 0009-0000-9810-493X
E-mail: zibaew@mail.ru

Oleg R. Zhukov, Private Medical University "REAVIZ" (Saratov branch)

Candidate of Sciences in Philology, Lecturer, Private Medical University "REAVIZ",
Saratov, Russia
ORCID: 0009-0008-7527-8003
E-mail: olegzhukov1990@mail.ru

Pavel V. Belous, Surgut State University

Candidate of Sciences in History, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Humanitarian Education and Sports, Surgut State University,
Surgut, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0003-0744-8759
E-mail: thinkertgs@gmail.com

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Баришић Фр. 1953. Чуда Димитрија Солунског као историјски извори. Београд, 157 с.

Димитров Д.Й. 2005. Тъмните векове на Византия: (културно-исторически очерци). Велико Търново, Издателство «Фабер», 256 с.

Ковачева Л. Куга у Антици и Византиjи и ньена перцепциjа у македонским народним предвньима. 2018. В: Ниш и Византиja. Зб. XVII: 491–497.

Кузмановска J.А. 2013. Позноантичка топонимија Македоније и Тесалије у Прокопиjеву делу De aedificiis. Београд, докторска дисертациjа, 280 с.

Alfani G. 2013. Plague in Seventeenth-Century Europe and the Decline of Italy: An Epidemiological Hypothesis. In: European Review of Economic History. Vol. 17(4): 408–412.

Biraben J.N., Le Goff J. 1975. The Plague in the Early Middle Ages. In: Biology of Man in History. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 48–80.

Büntgen U., Myglan V.S., Ljungqvist F.Сh., McCormick M., Cosmo N.D., Sig M.J., Wagner S., Krusic P.J., Esper J., Kaplan J.O., Vaan M.A.C. de, Luterbacher J., Wacker L., Tegel W., Kirdyanov A.V. 2016. Cooling and Societal Change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD. In: Nature Geoscience. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2652).

Dooley A. 2007. The Plague and Its Consequences in Ireland In: Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 215–230.

Frisk H. 1960: Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bd. II: K–Ω. Heidelberg, Universitätverlag, 1154 s.

Haeser H. 1882. Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der Volkskrankheiten. Bd. III. Jena, Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 996 s.

Haldon J., Elton H., Huebner S. R., Izdebski A., Mordechai L., Newfield T. P. 2018. Plagues, Climate Change, and the End of an Empire: A Response to Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome. In: History Compass. Vol. 1–3 (e12507. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12507)

Harper K. 2017: The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 440 p.

Hartman L., Kurbatov A.V. 2018: SI Data on Colle Gnifetti Tephra from AD 536 Volcanic Event. In: Antiquity. Cambridge, (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WJVK3).

Keller M., Paulus Ch., Xoplaki E. 2021. Die Justinianische Pest. Grenzen und Chancen naturwissenschaftlicher Ansätze für ein integratives Geschichtsverständnis. In: Evangelische Theologie. Vol. 81. Iss. 5: 385–401.

Liddel G.H., Scott R. 1996. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2438 p.

MacArthur W.P. 1948–1949. The Identification of Some Pestilences Recorded in the Irish Annals. In: Irish Historical Studies. Vol. 6: 169–188.

McCormick M. 2019. Climates of History, Histories of Climate: From History to Archaeoscience. In: Journal of Interdisciplinary History № 50. Iss. 1: 3–30.

Meier M. 2004. Prokop, Agathias, die Pest und das Ende‘ der antiken Historiographie. In: Historische Zeitschrift. Bd. 278. H. 1: 281–310.

Meier M. 2020. “The ‘Justinianic Plague’: An “Inconsequential Pandemic”? A Reply”. In: Medizinhistorisches Journal. Bd. 55/2: 172–199.

Mordechai L., Eisenberg M. 2019. Rejecting Catastrophe: The Case of the Justinianic Plague. In: Past & Present, Vol. 244. Iss. 1: 3–50.

Morony M.G. 2007: For Whom Does the Writer Write? The First Bubonic Plague Pandemic According to Syriac Sources. In: Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 59–86.

Russel J.C. 1987. Medieval Demography: Essays, Ams Studies in the Middle Ages. New York, Ams Pr. Inc., 325 p.

Sophocles E.A. 1914. Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (From 146 B.C. to A.D. 1100). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1188 p.

Stathakopoulos D.Ch. 1998. Die Terminologie der Pest in byzantinischen Quellen. In: Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik. Bd. 48: 2–7.

Stathakopoulos D.Ch. 2016. Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire: A Systematic Survey of Subsistence Crises and Epidemics. London; New York, Routledge, 432 p.

Sticker G. 1908–1910. Abhandlungen aus der Seuchengeschichte und Seuchenlehre. Bd. 2. Teil 1. Die Pest: Die Pest als Seuche und als Plage. Gießen, Toepelmann, 1068 s.

Toohey M. 2016: Climatic and Societal Impacts of the Volcanic Double Event at the Dawn of the Middle Ages. In: Climatic Change, 136: 401–412.

Vaan M. de. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. Leiden; Boston, Brill, 825 s.

Wójcik M. 2011. Plaga Justyniana: Cesarstwo wobec epidemii. W: Zeszyty Prawnicze. R. 11. Z. 1: 377–401.


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Published

2025-03-28

How to Cite

Zibaev, A. V., Zhukov, O. R., & Belous, P. V. (2025). On Periodization of the Justinian Plague. Via in Tempore. History and Political Science, 52(1), 58-68. https://doi.org/10.52575/2687-0967-2025-52-1-58-68

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Topical issues of world history

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