How the Black Death Killed Rome - The Plague of Justinian DOCUMENTARY скачать в хорошем качестве

How the Black Death Killed Rome - The Plague of Justinian DOCUMENTARY

The Plague of Justinian was one of the most destructive pandemics to rock the ancient world. It killed 10s of millions across the Empire and contributed to the fall of Rome. The first 100 people to go to https://www.blinkist.com/invicta are going to get unlimited access for 1 week to try it out. You’ll also get 25% off if you want the full membership. In this history documentary we take a look at one of the most destructive pandemics of the ancient world. Thanks to modern science we have been able to identify its root cause, the Yersinia Pestis bacterium. The Black Death had come to Europe centuries before its more infamous Medieval visit. We begin the episode with a brief discussion of disease in the ancient world. We then turn specifically to the nature of the Black Death. The documentary covers its life cycle in reservoir populations, its transmission by fleas, and its symptoms once in a host body. Once this context is established we turn to our historical record for the first record of its appearance. This occurred around 540 AD in Roman Egypt. Our records tell us that it sprung up in the Roman fort of Pelusium on the eastern edge of the Nile Delta. Here the bacterium would infect the local rodent population which infested the grain depots and port facilities of Egypt. These then seem to have hitched a ride on one of the numerous outbound ships and been directly injected into the trade routes which were the bloodstream of the Roman Empire. The Plague then spread to all major port cities with a huge wave of destruction. The capitol of Constantinople was incredibly hard hit with even the Emperor being infected. The Plague struck the Byzantine Empire just as Belisarius was leading the legions to reconquer the west. It seems that this destabilizing attack crippled Rome's ability to press forward with the campaigns and doomed their efforts to bring about the rise of a new Roman Empire which stretched across the whole of the Mediterranean once more. In the last portion of the documentary we then take a look at some of the scientific evidence which might better contextualize the impact of the Plague of Justinian. Bibliography and Suggested Reading Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire The Justinian Plague: An inconsequential pandemic? The Justinian Plague’s Devastating Impact Was Likely Exaggerated