The Decade of Calamities (530-540 AD)

Updated 04.03.2017

Three years after the violent riot in the hippodrome rebuilding a new Hagia Sophia was under halfway to completion. This was the third church of Holy Wisdom built on the same site and would last for centuries to come. Justinianus probably took heed of the destructive power unleashed by the mob and wanted this edifice to endure the calamities of the hand of god and human alike. During that fourth year the weather began to change.Procopius recorded

 “during this year… the sun gave forth its light without brightness… and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.”

Crop failures were seen throughout to world from Europe to China. Perhaps a volcano erupted or a comet struck to release massive amounts of dust into the atmosphere to cover the sky with dust. How would Theodora react to the never coming summer that year? That was the year that sun never warmed. Next year saw the completion of Hagia Sophia and Procopius claimed Justinian had said

 “Solomon I have outdone thee”. 

It didn't resemble the European cathedrals that took decades to finish, it was done in one strong push despite the crop failures and ongoing war with the barbarians on the frontiers. They must have pulled it off with hard measures because crop failures might have raised the crop prices, and paying for the continuous wars.

Three years had passed. The Empire had to turn to east this time to deal with their latest enemies, the Persians who plundered Anatolia when they caught the Romans off guard. The conflict with the Persians all boiled down to the control of Silk Route passing through the Persian territory to reach Constantinople. In times of war Eastern Rome like its follower Ottoman Empire devised new alliances to bypass its eastern neighbour. Making a deal with the Abyssinians was one ambitious plan to side step them.

After the war started it seemed that those trade routes had one more gift to present except silk. It was the plague. Recently genetically the home of the bacteria Yersinia Pestis, the bacteria of the great pestilence was found to be China. These bacteria caused the same findings and symptoms as the Black Death that happened about a thousand years later in Europe. It devastated the capital, killed nearly the half of its population and dealt a strong blow to East Mediterranean cities. Emperor Justinian also contracted the disease but survived. Procopius noted there was no room and time to bury the dead, without funeral rites the dead were piled up in the open.

Bubos in bubonic plague, Source: Wikipedia

The reservoir of the bacteria, the black rat (Rattus Rattus) accompanied us for one reason. Food. The wheat harvested near the Nile were brought in the mills to grind the seed out. Later the seeds were carried into the granaries where mice were trying to get a hold on to. By the trade routes that connected the world mice and fleas were carried around the globe in electric speed compared to past and transmitted the disease to their fellow mice and fleas. When the people of Constantinople were fed with grains from Egypt. Rats and fleas were imported with the grains to the capital where they must have also found a massive population of mice. The bacteria multiplied in the unseen corners and recesses of Constantinople and with mice and fleas roamed the streets and entered every home in the capital.

That was how the flow of riches and wheat lead to war and plague in 530 AD.