2. Black Rats Carried the Plague Across the World of Late Antiquity
The strain of Yersinia pestis bacterium responsible for Justinian’s Plague originated near Central Asia, near the border between modern China and Kyrgyzstan. Like the Black Death, Justinian’s Plague was mainly bubonic, felling its victims with all the bubonic plague’s tragic horrors. It first struck China and northern India, made its way via trade routes to the Great Lakes region of Africa, then down the Nile to Egypt.
Like the Black Death, Justinian’s Plague was transmitted by infected fleas carried by black rats. Egypt was the Byzantine Empire’s granary, and from its seaports, ships laden with grain – and also rats hosting infected fleas – sailed across the Mediterranean. From Egypt, the plague rapidly spread to the rest of the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Constantinople, which served as both capital and commercial center for the Byzantine Empire. From Constantinople, the plague swiftly spread through the rest of Europe.