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57 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Emperor and a Bacterium Rewrite History, June 12, 2007
Great men have changed the world. And so have microbes. And changes fifteen hundred years ago, among ancient societies that are irretrievably lost except to scholars, created contingencies that have made our world what it is, with no way possible to conceive all the "what ifs" that have thereby fallen out to give our current political, religious, and social situation. If you are like me, the history of the sixth century Mediterranean, especially Constantinople, is one vague gray area, but it doesn't have to stay that way. _Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe_ (Viking) is a strange book in many ways. It is not written by an academic with long publishing credentials behind him. William Rosen has publishing credentials, but they are in the business of publishing, where he has been a senior executive. This is his first book as author, and it shows all the enthusiasm of a hobbyist eager to let others know just how interesting is the subject of his particular fascination. It is crammed with religious, military, and political history, along with large doses of epidemiology and bacteriology (to help explain how bubonic plague works) as well as an addendum of entomology (to help explain the equally history-making silkworm). Not every hobbyist could make his obsession interesting, but Rosen's book swarms with so many facts that it is always surprising and never dull. The backbone of the book is a biography of the Emperor Justinian himself. He was born in a Balkan hill town in 482 CE, but an uncle, a general in the imperial guard, adopted him, took him to Constantinople, and got him an education. Justinian was a hard worker, productive to the point of robbing himself of sleep. He did not pay much attention to his appearance, and he tended to asceticism. He stuck around Constantinople to work, and had little interest in visiting his military conquests. He had a considerable ego, revealed in his own writings, and little respect for his predecessors or especially for anyone whom he considered an enemy of the church. Justinian was shrewd in his choice of advisors, and never chose better than his chief general Belisarius, who conquered Vandals in Africa and Ostrogoths in Italy, as well as a late glory in defending Constantinople against the Huns. For all his accomplishments, Justinian could not overcome the devastation caused by the rat, the flea, and the bacterium _Yersinia pseudotuberculosis_. Rosen explains how the bacterium was a relatively harmless type, perhaps causing a mild flu, but then it harnessed the flea as a means of transportation, and while evolving to turn off the defenses of the flea, it became deadly to humans. It was recorded in 540 in the Nile delta, and because this was the grain source for Constantinople, the germs in the fleas on the rats in the ships soon were causing a plague within the city. At least 25 million people were killed in the empire. Justinian himself was infected, but was one of the lucky ones whose immune system somehow fought off the illness; other residents of Constantinople were dying off at the rate of maybe 5,000 a day during the same time, overfilling the hospitals and then the cemeteries. The plague affected tax revenues, and handed new opportunities to the enemies of the Empire. It possibly prevented Justinian's armies from reforming the old Roman Empire entirely, and it enabled a subsequent Arabic expansion and the growth of Islam. It is safe to say that our world would be quite different if the Plague of Justinian had never happened. Rosen knows that looking at the complicated sixth century through the lens of one particular bacteriological eruption is an oversimplification, and that the plague cannot be the single cause of Rome's decline, the birth of European states, or the rise of Islam. The effects, however, were vast and often surprising; the plague had disproportionate effects, for instance, on those in monasteries due to the close living quarters, and also especially afflicted those upon ships so that there was a direct effect on naval campaigns. Looked at another way, the pandemic caused a labor shortage, which sparked an agricultural revolution, which caused increased population and power for European states. Rosen's book is valuable for the account of the history and epidemiology of a distant time, but also for contemplation of contingency on a world-wide scale.
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The flea that changed history, May 10, 2007
A combination of biography, sweeping historical drama, vivid eyewitness accounts, geopolitical intrigue, and epidemiological detective story, "Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe" argues that Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for bubonic plague, was the major force that led to the decline of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire of late antiquity and the subsequent rise of medieval Europe. Tracing the origins of "Justinian's plague" to the fairly benign bacterium Yersinia pseudotuberculosis in East Africa, William Rosen describes how the bacterium, in adapting to a new host, the flea, became far more virulent and mobile. The Mediterranean black rat carried the flea and the plague from Africa aboard ships to port cities all along the eastern Mediterranean and eventually to Constantinople, the capital of the empire, where it killed more than a third of the population. "Justinian's Flea" also tells of the historical figures whose lives were changed by the plague, including and especially the Emperor Justinian, who hoped to rebuild the former glory of the Roman Empire but could not foresee that his greatest obstacle would be a flea. He was born in a small village in the Balkans and rose to power through family connections and sheer talent, promoting others with merit and even marrying a professional courtesan who went on to become his confidante and a powerful woman in her own right. Rosen makes excellent use of contemporary accounts to describe not only the immediate effects of the plague, but the far-reaching ones as well, ranging across the empire and beyond, to China and Arabia. But rather than simply describe events, Rosen explains them within the context of our current knowledge of medicine, science, and technology, and with the awareness of the eventual political and social outcomes we know today. "Justinian's Flea" shows with extensive learning and research, disguised as a compelling narrative, how one of the great turning points in history was decided not by man but by a flea.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Loaded with history, but off target, May 9, 2009
This review is from: Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (Paperback)
William Rosen's "Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire" is better titled "The Life and Times of Justinian the Great". Although Rosen's work is loaded with endless interesting details of Justinian's rise to power, love life, geopolitical accomplishments, architectural triumphs and his complex personal relationships, it has a proportionally miniscule amount of information about the plague itself. And while I find the aforementioned information worthwhile, it is not why I purchased the book in the first place. For example, more actual pages in the book are dedicated to the Hagia Sophia than to the details of the plague. In fact, there is no discussion of the plague until well into the second half of the book (page 170 something)...that's a long way to go before you're introduced to the antagonist. In contrast, by page 98 we are in the midst of a mini-series on the birth, destruction and re-construction of the Hagia Sophia. It indeed is one of the the great churches found on earth and we learn a vast array of details regarding its eccentric designers, the history of the arch, the source of the materials, the craftsmen and artisans involved, the socio-political and religious implications of its creation, the specific details of the piers and buttresses, practical liturgical considerations and so on and so on. This one tangent alone carries more pages in the book than the entire discussion of the title's topic. Additionally, while there is no doubt regarding the impact of the plague on western civilization, Rosen leaves a huge hole in his proposed conclusion relative to the crushing effects of the Islamic imperialism of the following century. Although depopulation and destabilization contributed to the ease of the Muslim conquests,the net result, plaque or not, would have been likely the same. The book would receive a significantly higher rating if it had centered on a different central theme, but it misses the mark of the title.
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