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Justinian's Flea

Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe

William Rosen

$39.99

Paperback

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English
Pimlico
01 July 2008
Popular history at its best- an epic story in which the newly united Roman Empire under Justinian is decimated by bubonic plague.

In the middle of the sixth century, the world's smallest organism collided with the world's mightiest empire. With the death of twenty-five million people, the Roman Empire, under her last great emperor, Justinian, was decimated. Before Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that carries bubonic plague, was finished, both the Roman and Persian empires were easy pickings for the armies of Muhammad on their conquering march out of Arabia. In its wake, the plague - history's first pandemic - marked the transition from the age of Mediterranean empires to the age of European nation-states - from antiquity to the medieval world.

A narrative history that melds contemporary sources with modern disciplines, Justinian's Flea is a unique account of one of history's great turning points - the summer of 542 - revealed through the experiences of the remarkable individuals whose lives are a window onto a remarkable age- Justinian, his general Belisarius, the greatest soldier between Caesar and Saladin; his architect, Anthemius who built Constantinople's Hagia Sophia (and whose brother, Alexander, was the great physician of the plague years); Tribonian, the jurist who created the Justinianic Code; and, finally, his empress Theodora, the one-time prostitute who became co-ruler of the empire, the most politically powerful woman in European history until Elizabeth I.

By:  
Imprint:   Pimlico
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 153mm,  Spine: 27mm
Weight:   497g
ISBN:   9781844137442
ISBN 10:   1844137449
Pages:   384
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 0 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

William Rosen was a senior executive at Macmillan and Simon & Schuster publishing houses for more than twenty-five years. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Justinian's Flea is his first book.

Reviews for Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe

As a feat of scholarship alone this book is extraordinary, but what really impresses is the sense of ease its author manifests in whatever subject he enters. It's as if he had been granted the freedom of late antiquity at birth ... His eloquence, wit, narrative skill, learning and (one dares to add) compassion, hoist this book abouve the miasma of its deeply sombre subject and make it, strangely, a joy * Independent on Sunday * Assertively modern in language and attitude, Rosen's multi-disciplinary Byzantine history deals not only with fatal microbiology but also celebrates Justinian's major achievements * The Times * A massively ambitious work that covers a great deal of ground..... a splendid biography of the emperor Justinian -- Ian Pindar * Guardian * Ambitious and learned...readers will be swept along by the strong current of Mr Rosen's good natured erudition * Economist * William Rosen doesnt just give us the most believable, the most human and the most fully rounded Justinian ever, he also conjures up a vivid picture of the age, in a compelling style that makes his weighty learning light -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Millennium and Civilizations


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