RE-RELEASE: Buzzballs and Buboes: The Plague of Justinian (a Drunk Deep Dive)

Ancient History Fangirl

History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 518 Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian. The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.8	Grownups, if there's a child in your life who is interested in, curious about, or fascinated by people and places from history, then my podcast, the past and the curious, might just be a hit in your home.
0:17.1	From the invention of microscopes to world-traveling dogs to fashions of the 1890s, gold rush ghost towns, and audiences going wild for walking competitions,
0:27.3	we've got a little bit of it all.
0:29.5	Hosted by children's author and museum educator Mick Sullivan, that's me, the show is fun,
0:34.9	funny, engaging, honest, and beloved by kids and parents alike.
0:39.4	Find the past and the curious at all the usual podcast places.
0:44.8	Hi, everyone. This is Jenny and Jen. This is a re-release from our back catalog about the plague of Justinian.
0:51.1	We're re-releasing this to give you a sense of what the Roman Empire was dealing
0:54.5	with in the midst of all these Gothic rebellions and new kingdoms. So the plague of Justinian started
0:59.6	in 541 AD, again in the midst of this war to take back the Italian peninsula from the
1:05.5	Ostrogoths. It continued for decades afterwards. Some research, which we talk about in this episode, suggests
1:11.7	the plague was started by climate change connected to the volcanic winter of 536 AD. So while this was
1:17.7	going on, war was raging for control of the Italian peninsula. Between the Ostrogothic kingdom and
1:23.1	the forces of Justinian I, led by Belisaurus, Justinian himself and his wife Theodora did get sick with the
1:29.3	plague, but they recovered. Eventually, Justinian did take back control of the Italian peninsula,
1:34.7	but he lost it a few decades later when a mass migration of Lombards was able to roll right over
1:39.8	the skeleton crew he'd left to hold the peninsula. Maybe there was not that much to defend at that point after the plague of Justinian had killed
1:46.7	one in three people on the peninsula or thereabouts.
1:50.2	Anyway, there's also an interesting connection to plague death here that we can get into
1:54.3	when we talk about the Gothic connection to the vampire myth, which will occur in a later episode.
1:59.6	Get excited.
	...

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