From Procopius' "History of the Wars".
The disease in Byzantium ran a course of 4 months, and its greatest virulence lasted about 3. And at first the deaths were a little more than the normal, then the mortality rose still higher, and afterwards the tale of dead...
The disease in Byzantium ran a course of 4 months, and its greatest virulence lasted about 3. And at first the deaths were a little more than the normal, then the mortality rose still higher, and afterwards the tale of dead...
...reached five thousand each day, and again it even came to ten thousand and still more than that….
Confusion and disorder everywhere became complete. For slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service...
Confusion and disorder everywhere became complete. For slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service...
of their domestics who were either sick or dead, and many houses became completely destitute of human inhabitants.
During that time it seemed no easy thing to see any man in the streets of Byzantium, but all who had the good fortune to be in health were sitting in their houses.
During that time it seemed no easy thing to see any man in the streets of Byzantium, but all who had the good fortune to be in health were sitting in their houses.
And work of every description ceased, and all the trades were abandoned by the artisans, and all other work as well...Indeed in a city which was simply abounding in all good things starvation almost absolute was running riot.
Such was the course of the pestilence in the Roman empire at large as well as in Byzantium. And it fell also upon the land of the Persians and visited all the other barbarians besides.
gutenberg.org/files/16764/16…
Book XXII, year 542
gutenberg.org/files/16764/16…
Book XXII, year 542
