Kevin's favourite capital of the week
May 3rd 2014: Constantinople, circa 543 AD, the capital of
the Eastern Roman Empire, AKA, the Byzantine Empire
From the Journal of Lucas Jensen, time
travelling historian, May 15, 543 AD:
I've been in the “Most Christian
City” for a few days now, and at this time in history it might more
aptly be called the most fearful city. Or perhaps the most dying
city. People are dying by the thousands everyday. I can well
believe the 5000 people dying a day estimate. I have yet to be able
to gain access to the palace, but I will soon. Most likely as the
death toll spirals further out of control more people of education
will fall to it. The civil service will not be able to take too much
of it. I would like to be there when Justinian falls ill. I do
wonder how he will react.
It seems that the regular people of
Constantinople know what to think about the plague. Some at least
are all to happy to blame the emperor and his wife. Procopius, the
historian of the time appears to be right on the money for these
people. I have yet to see the famous imperial historian. Rumours
are swirling around the city about the position of Belisarius, who
appears to be far more popular than Justinian. Belisarius was
certainly more popular in Procopius' mind. Despite his lack of
popularity, Justinian is well regarded by Latin speaking folk in the
city, though there are few of them. This is something I'm grateful
for. My Greek is far better than my Latin. In this I fit right in
with the inhabitants.
I am off on a tangent though. I have
not been idle despite my inability to gain access to the palace. The
hippodrome I would have liked to have seen in all its glory before
the Nika riots. The races still happen, but infrequently. There is
clearly a lot less heart put into it. Now the opinion of the public
is expressed behind closed doors, not, as it had been, in terms of
the favouring of the racing colours. It is not that dissimilar to
the sports of my time. Much less appealing snacks though. This was
of some academic interest, but I believe a college will be snooping
around in a slightly earlier time. We shall compare notes upon my
return.
It is the docks that I have been
snooping about the most though. It is not like modern container
ships arriving, but it is impressive. There are ships arriving
almost daily from what I can see, carrying grain from Egypt and other
areas of the empire. It is, of course, this clear indication of
trade that has doomed an estimated 50,000,000 people. For with
trade, it seems, comes rats, and with them, their fleas. It is
virtually certain now that the plague of Justinian was caused by the
fleas on the backs of rats and other rodents. While folk such as
Procopius might blame a bad miasma due to the evil Emperor (and lets
be fair, there is no way they could have known), the true culprit is
the connectedness of the world. And, of course, the large
concentrations of less than hygienic people. I have watched and seen
the rats hopping off the ships and making a dash into the city. The
fleas on these rats have transported the plague from as far away as
China. From a purely academic perspective it is fascinating. From a
humane perspective, its horrifying. All I can say is that I'm glad
to live in a time of evidence based medicine and vaccines. Otherwise
I would never have travelled back to such a deadly time.
In any event, I will continue to
attempt to gain access to Justinian and Theodora. Perhaps Belasarius
as well. Who knows how they are truly handling the crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment