Born Then541–549
Life during the Plague of Justinian
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
The first known pandemic of bubonic plague reached Egypt in 541 and spread along trade routes around the Mediterranean and beyond. Constantinople lost a large share of its people in 542. DNA from graves confirms it was Yersinia pestis, but how many died is still argued.
Deaths: contested: older estimates say 25–50 million; recent studies argue for a smaller toll.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.
Around the same time
- Justinian's reconquest wars 533–554
- Plague of Justinian 541–549
- Recurrences of the first plague pandemic 558–750