f the emerods and images of your mice that mar the land (Deaux 20)." Medical historians speculate that the emerods were plagued buboes. "If we read rats from mice, then we have pretty good description of a bubonic plague epidemic (Shrewsbury 25)."The first bubonic plague pandemic of which we have substantial historical knowledge occurred early in the sixth century. The plague appears to have begun either in Arabia or Central Africa where it may have come via trade routes from China. By 542 there was bubonic plague in Egypt. From there it spread along the north coast of Africa, across Palestine and Syria and finally to Europe. The plague swept the entire Roman Empire which at that time was ruled from Constantinople by the Empero Justinian.The Justinian plague, as the pandemic was called, continued for nearly 60 years. During that period it was estimated that half the population of the Eastern Roman Empire died either as a direct result of the disease, or from the general destitution that the plague created. The effects of the plague greatly weakened the Eastern Roman Empire and may have helped to bring out the ultimate decline. Accurate figures are hard to come by, but it has been estimated that during four years of the Black Death some 25 million people, one-quarter to one-half of the total population of Europe died from the plague. It would be wrong to attribute the Renaissance to the disruption in European society brought about by the Black Death. The Renaissance in Italy was already underway when the Black Death struck. But still, any weakening of the rigid structures that encompassed the medieval world probably helped to open men to new ideas. ...
