Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire

First and foremost this is a history that interweaves the plague with the people, circumstances and events during the reign of Emperor Justinian. It isn't a history of the science of the first great plague though JUSTINIAN'S FLEA includes plenty of scientific detail. The history begins a little before Justinian's reign and ends at the founding of the Islamic world all while chronicling the dozens of times bubonic plague reemerged throughout the empire. Though I've studied this era of the Roman empire, I'd never really associated with bouts of plague. Rosen persistently avoided the typical focus on the rather outlandish duo of Justinian and Theodora choosing to relate the stories of generals like Belisarius and administrators such as John the Cappadocian as well as an extensive section on the Hagia Sofia. I found this level of detail informed without overwhelming me while Rosen's often humorous depictions kept the book entertaining while covering an amazing amount of subject matter rather effortlessly.

There are a few drawbacks for a potential reader despite the author's skill as a storyteller. Unfortunately, the intro itself is a bit awkward yet important because it's the lead in to the rest of the book. If I'd been the editor's editor, I'd have had him cut this section (which seems to be an inexplicable tie in to Ad Astra, really!) and replace it with a dedication and maybe a relevant quote or two. I suggest starting with the prologue. I'd also suggest using an atlas of antiquity. The only drawings included are of parts of maps that could fit on one page. Otherwise, Rosen describes the Hagia Sofia so vividly no visuals are needed. I'll probably find a coffee table book of it anyway. One other minor problem are year references that require going back two or three pages for clarification. This was especially an issue when Rosen discusses another event and its year before returning to the main timeline. Except for these issues and a brief return to outer space in the epilogue, Justinian's Flea has to be one of my all-time favorite books.

Truly a mini-course could be built around Justinian's Flea. Two related works mentioned:

Augustine's City of God
Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy

The last page presents the plague's return in 1347 as the Great Mortality almost as a promo for John Kelly's The Great Mortality.

And of course the end notes contain numerous references to source material.

Maybe a peek at Ad Astra would be worthwhile as well ...

I wasn't planning on reading this book at all. Merely saw it on a friend's table yesterday, got curious, and asked if I could read it before she did. Now I feel as if I've eaten a 10-course meal in the space of 20 minutes.

This era of history is not usually my thing. I was an International Studies major in college, so I of course covered it in my history classes, and I taught it to my world history students, but it's not an era I would seek out books upon. However, I was fascinated by _Pox Americana_ (I've read it twice as research for my WIP), and the title of this book sounded like it was similar. It wasn't really. But in this case, that isn't a bad thing, because Rosen provided a buffet of information so well presented that you don't need a background in history to take it in.

His bottom line is this: (from the back cover blurb)

"It was the golden age of Emperor Justinian, who, from his glorious capital of Constantinople, united and reigned over an empire stretching from Italy to North Africa. It was the zenith of his achievements--and the last of them.

In A.D. 542, the bubonic plague struck. In weeks, the glorious classical world of Justinian was plunged into chaos, and the beginings of a medieval Europe were born."

However, the plague itself only occupies perhaps a quarter of the book. The rest of it is background, side-plots, and connections to other ideas and future events. Rosen follows a common thread, loops off on a connected idea, but always manages to bring the reader back the main thread before they get too lost.

In the course of the book, Rosen covers "history, microbiology, ecology, jurisprudence, theology, and epidemiology," not to mention tidbits of architecture, art, trade, politics, medicine, and numerous other subjects. Whether he was discussing the changing tactics of warfare or the warring theologies of the early Christian Church (Arian vs. Monophysite vs. orthodoxy/Catholic), his writing went down so smoothly that I almost wasn't aware of how much I was taking in at times. The only sections that I found hard to chew was when he went into great detail about the evolution and biology of Yersinia pestis, that is, bubonic plague.

_Justinian's Flea_ is heavy reading, but not overwhelmingly so. It appeals both to serious students of history as well as to the curiosity of the "layman."

Grade: A/A+

I should have known, when the author launched the book with an extended Apollo 11 analogy. It was a pretty neat analogy! Did you know that NASA had to account not only for the gravitational pull of Earth and the Moon in navigating Apollo 11 to the Sea of Tranquility, but also the gravity of the Sun, Jupiter, and countless other celestial bodies? I didn't! Gosh. Wait, what was this book about again?

Reading this book you'll find yourself pulled down countless rabbit holes, many of them interesting, and struggling mightily to cling to the larger thread of the story. You'll learn about the construction of the Hagia Sofia in staggering architectural detail, about the Persian dynasty that was concurrent to Justinian's reign, and how silk is made. You'll learn about the guy who invented the microscope, and the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic. Yes, you'll learn that Y. pestis is one bastard of a bacterium.

What you won't learn is much in the way of a coherent history of Justinian's reign or more than a very superficial understanding of what the plague did to the Roman Empire. This is not the sort of book that bothers with archeological record or, it seems, even the written record of more than one contemporary source, Procopius. The story is not told chronologically, presumably in service to a better plot, but frankly it just makes the whole thing harder to follow.

The author clearly knows a lot of things, and wanted to make sure we knew that he's not just another Roman historian. Skip this one, and wait for the movie.

I was most interested in the biology of plague, so I will limit my comments to that section. At first, I was very impressed and enjoyed the narrative very much despite some confusing sections and digressions that were perhaps too detailed. However, as I got farther into these chapters, I encountered many things that seemed to be incorrect or so muddled I could not tell whether they made sense or not. My faith in the author began to decay, casting doubt on the reliability of the whole book. For example:

187- The author says that the Y. pestis bacterium had to "become a pathogen" and "is practically forced to become a killer" because rats don't travel much and there would be no reason for a flea to hop to another rat (spreading the disease) unless the host dies. But to say something is a "pathogen" does not mean it kills the host. And, since plague is endemic in much of the world (as the author notes on p 185), it was not "forced" to become quickly lethal in other, equally sedentary hosts. Finally, fleas are happy to hop onto other hosts if the current host is crowded with fleas and another host is close by (for example, during mating, during parental care, or while passing in a tight tunnel). If you have two cats and one gets fleas, trust me, the other one will get fleas, too.

189- "Rat populations fluctuate in direct proportion to two things: availability of food and dry heat." But he then says that "A season with lower temperature and increased precipitation increases rat populations..." So it seems that populations increase with increased food and precipitation but with decreased temperature. Thus population is DIRECTLY related to food and precipitation but INVERSELY related to temperature. I don't think we know that the relationship is "proportional." Also, this relationship is probably expressed only in specific ranges; the rat population probably does not increase when temperature drops from 32 to -10 degrees F, only when it drops from very high to moderate heat.

206- [The role of a certain protein is to bind] "thrombin, which interferes with the body's ability to form platelets, needed for an effective immune response." Thrombin is a coagulation enzyme that activates fibrinogen to create the protein strings that are the matrix for clots. Platelets are also involved in coagulation. As far I as know, neither is essential for any immune response.

175- "The European rabbit flea is so synchronized with its host that a female flea only geatates when living on a pregant doe; when the doe gives birth, so does the flea and the new fleas find a happy home on a baby rabbit." I really loved this fascinating fact except that "gestate" means "to carry a fetus in the womb from conception to birth" and all the fleas I have met lay eggs.

So much of the explanation is very readable and clear that it is surprising that so many major issues (like the pros and cons of the origin of plague or the role percentage of susceptible animals) are extremely unclear and often are strangely ordered, as if some of the information was inserted after most of it had been written.

Mr. Rosen has a million wonderful stories, but this book sorely needed a copy editor/fact checker. The biology section has many complex ideas expressed very well in popular language, but the confusion and errors undermine the credibility of the whole book.

Too wordy. The kernel of the matter required abt 10 pp and not an entire book. However, if you are a complete novice to the early medieval ages and to global epidemics, then it's a nice intro.

Somewhere in this vast amount of information, there's a book--probably three or four. It's a really frustrating read. Parts of the book are quite good but don't add anything to the story I think Rosen trying to tell. Other parts are boring and pretentious. The worst was the long section on the evolution of bacteria. Honestly, in a book about late antiquity? Rosen is an editor and he ought to know: if your darling, beautiful sentence doesn't advance your story or your thesis, take it out. If your arduously collected info isn't germane to the topic, leave it out.

A well written and researched look into all aspects of the plague including microbiology; as well as a review of the historical record of Justinian's reign. Extremely in depth. If you love the Roman Empire, it's Fall and the role of disease in history and its impact, you will love this book

I had a difficult time getting through this book. The problem is that their is a tremendous story behind all of this history and the author failed to tell it in any sort of readable way. Instead we are lead through hundreds of pages of infintesimal detail, written in a stiff, wordy manner, about many things, some of which do not play into the story at all. It wasn't until the second half of the book before Rosen touched on the details of the epidemic in any way. The book reads like a college thesis -- one in which the author has trouble getting to the point. Meanwhile, there is a great and terrifying story here that is mired in Rosen's stodgy presentation. History is exciting! It always has been. It is writers like this that make it seem otherwise.

William Rosen has produced a very fine history of the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, often regarded as the greatest of the Byzantine Emperors. Justinian ruled the Byzantine Empire during the 500s, a period which is often regarded as the end of the classical era and the beginning of what Europeans refer to as the Middle Ages.

Rosen is a gifted writer with an excellent ability to create an illuminating anecdote which sums up a life, a city, or a culture in just a few paragraphs or pages. He provides a lot of fascinating material on a variety of subjects pertaining to Justinian and his reign, including the difficulties the Byzantines encountered while constructing the massive basilica of Hagia Sophia, or the consequences of the reorganization of Roman law and legal precedent which created the Corpus Juris Civilis, still the basis for much of Western law to this day. Most impressively, Rosen is able to make his readers recognize the horror of the pandemic which struck much of the Mediterranean world during Justinian's reign, and to understand that we are still living with the long term consequences of that massive disease outbreak.

While Rosen is not a professional historian but rather a publishing executive, Justinian's Flea is both scholarly and accessible, and deserves a place on the bookshelves of everyone who is fascinated by the past and intrigued by the still present after effects of long ago events.

Seller shipped quickly, book arrived early. Nice condition, free of markings, no odor, intact covers. Using this for a term paper. Very pleased overall.