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The bubonic plague is an infection spread to humans through bites from fleas that travel on rodents. It appeared in 541 CE in the Roman Empire, among other regions in which it occurred in waves. The Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, experienced the plague during the reign of Emperor Justinian hence the name Justianic Plague. Emperor Justinian resided in the capital of Constantinople in the Roman Empire and experienced the epidemic firsthand. The emperor and his government handled the plague correctly since the emperor was among the casualties. The Bubonic plague affected many people, and its impact was felt worldwide and among people of all ranks.
The Bubonic plague affected all kinds of people and impacted their physical and mental health. The epidemic was caused by a bacteria known as Yersinia pestis (Mulhall, 2019). The plague was characterized by swollen and oozing buboes, fever, chills, headaches, and disorientation, and these symptoms caused severe pain and mental torture. At some point, the affected patients would see images of boats in the sea with people whose heads were cut off. The swollen buboes were extremely painful and would ooze pus, which made the patients undesirable to get nearby.
The Bubonic plague was spread by rodents such as rats which carried fleas. Human ectoparasite vectors such as human fleas and lice caused the rapid spread of the bubonic plague (Dean et al., 2018). The fleas carried the bacteria Yersinia pestis and would transfer it to humans through bites. Humans also carry fleas, accelerating the spread from one person to another during daily interactions. Rats are attracted to human activities and are found in many homes due to food availability. The plague also spread fast in highly populated areas compared to the countryside, where the population was lower and widespread.
The impact of the plague was first felt in the southeastern Mediterranean and later spread through the Levant to Constantinople. From Constantinople, it spread westwards through the Roman Empire as far north as Germany and Britain (Sessa, 1970). Some of the areas that were hit hardest were the capital of Constantinople and the city of Alexandria. Palestine city as well as Syria were also highly affected. All these areas experienced massive deaths and economic recession. The plague spread fast and ignited different reactions from people who were either victims or families to the victims.
Ordinary people had many reactions to the Justinianic plague, which were later found following the same pattern. The mental health of the victims was affected, and they would see images of people whose heads were cut off on boats in the sea. Mental health issues dominate supernatural and religious etiologies (Munawar et al., 2022). They could hear the people without heads calling them, which caused them to hide indoors and pretend they were not hearing even when their families called them. The victims would also throw themselves from high-story buildings to end their suffering due to extreme pain and mental instability. Therefore no one was left to take care of the victims as their relatives had already died.
People close to the victims were also affected by the plague. Many artisans abandoned trade, and markets were left bare. The buyers and sellers would die during transactions, leading to people avoiding trade. As a result, hunger spread through the Roman Empire as the citizens also refrained from borrowing because they would die immediately; they left the premises from which they had borrowed. The plague was considered the most devastating and deadly pandemic in human history (Lazzari, 2020). The deaths became unbearable, so people would be seen dragging corpses out of their houses. People abandoned their tradition of having a procession and chanting when burying the dead. The corpses were found lying in the streets and houses with no one to bury them, and the Roman government had to intervene.
The authorities had to find quick action to get a solution that would eliminate the corpses spread all over the streets. At first, people would collect the corpses in heaps and transport them to the sea, where they would be thrown. Eventually, they became tired and stopped bothering to bury the dead. The emperor, through his announcer of imperial messages, Theodore, intervened (Procopius, 1914). People were motivated to bury the dead through gifts such as gold and money. The plague caused long-lasting damage to the size of the population and urbanization rates (Alfani, 2019). Eventually were reduced in numbers and were tired and weak hence did not go to the burial sites. Theodore assigned officials who would hold gifts at burial sites and the people would be given the gifts when they buried the dead.
A decision was also made that would ease the burial process. Large pits would be dug, which would hold up to 70,000 corpses at a time because all the individual graves were already filled (Witakowski, 1966). The government also decided that the corpses would be buried outside the city’s walls to reduce the plague’s spread. Physicians would inspect the suspected causes of the plague and hence attempt to find a cure. The physicians during the Justinianic plague developed ways of diagnosing and treating the illness (Mulhall, 2021). The physician would also isolate the victims from their families, which is what they wanted most.
To help the lives of the victims, the government and physicians achieved some results. The government could clear the streets of the corpses, which were e disgusting site. Fewer corpses lay around, which also reduced the rate of spreading of the plague as people now had less contact with droplets from infected people who had the plague. However, not all results were positive, and most of the isolated victims killed themselves by jumping off high buildings to end their misery due to a lack of care and mental torture from ghosts in their minds that they thought existed.
The bubonic plague was caused by flea bites that carried the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which spread fast and widely. The overcrowded and condensed cities also contributed to the occurrence of the Justinianic plague. According to some religious believers, the plagues were caused by divine punishment for man’s sins, which was justified by the fact that all types of people died, whether rich or poor, such as health. The Bubonic plague was also attributed to poor sanitation and a high rodent population in residential areas.
The lessons taken home from the Bubonic plague are essential in improving survival from similar plagues. They can also be used to prevent the occurrence, which has severe consequences. It was realized that proper sanitation is crucial in everyday life as dirty areas provide breeding grounds for rodents and bacteria. Cleanliness plays a crucial role in eliminating fleas and lice, the agents that carry the bacteria. It was also discovered that the plague spread fast in highly populated areas. With this, people can decide to decentralize settlements to keep the plague from spreading fast.
The Bubonic plague affected many people, and its impact was felt worldwide and among people of all ranks. It caused mass, severe pain and mental torture, which led to mass deaths. People reacted differently, and the authorities attempted to intervene and help the victims. It was realized that proper sanitation is crucial in avoiding rodent plagues, and people should maintain top-notch hygiene standards amidst the plagues.
References
Alfani, G. and Percoco, M. (2019). “Plague and long‐term development: The lasting effects of the 1629–30 epidemic on the Italian cities,”The Economic History Review, 72(4).
Dean, K. R., Krauer, F., Walløe, L., Lingjærde, O. C., Bramanti, B., Stenseth, N. C., & Schmid, B. V. (2018). Human ectoparasites and the spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(6).
Lazzari, G., Colavizza, G., Bortoluzzi, F., Drago, D., Erboso, A., Zugno, F.,… & Salathé, M. (2020). A digital reconstruction of the 1630–1631 large plague outbreak in Venice. Scientific reports, 10(1).
Mulhall, J. (2019). “Plague before the pandemics: The Greek medical evidence for bubonic plague before the sixth century,”Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 93(2).
Munawar, K., Mukhtar, F., Choudhry, F. R., & Ng, A. L. O. (2022). Mental health literacy: A systematic review of knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders in Malaysia. Asia‐Pacific Psychiatry, 14(1), e12475.
Procopius (1914) “History of the wars,”Digital Loeb Classical Library [Preprint].
Sessa, K. (1970) The justinianic plague, Origins.
Witakowski, W. (1996) “Pseudo-dionysius of Tel-Mahre Chronicle (part III).” Web.
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