I feel that I have been fleeced by the ole bait & switch! I thought the book would be about the plague under Justinian's rule in AD 500-600's. Instead, I got a massive sweeping history of Byzantium, clear through WWI! This was a monumental task and not done well IMHO. It is rambling and there is no clear thesis. The author jumps from topic to topic and some of them I can not even connect to yersinia pestis, which had 15 pages dedicated to its evolution. I was 200 pages into the book (6 chapters) before the lil flea was introduced. And that was it--just one chapter. The remaining chapters dealt with how the flea helped to cause the downfall of Byzantium and also how it helped to rebuild Europe. I wanted pestilence and disease and misery and suffering! What I got was a scientific/historical treatise of 300 years of history and some of it so specialized that I had never even heard of it before--and I'm a history prof. (Sasanian Empire) This seems like it could be a book of separate historical essays that are only lightly connected. I read about the architecture of the Sophia Hagia as well as the yaka (?) timber used to build it; the entire chapter! I read about the Sub Atlantic Climate Change in Rome from about AD 100-750. I "think" the premise of the book was that all these things had to work together to create the perfect storm for the flea to evolve and wreak its havoc. I'm a simple woman with simple needs, I wanted more FLEA! 364 pages ( )

A lively re-telling of the real transition from Late Antiquity into the medieval world in the days of Justinian.

The author vividly tells the story of how the Roman Empire got to the point of having Justinian as Emperor; he describes the situation by which Justinian ascended to the purple and then the exploits of the early part of his reign. Africa and Italy are recovered for the Empire; things seem to be going well for the Empire.

Yet, as indicated from the beginning, a plague is on the horizon. The author also describes what was known at his time regarding the development of Y. pestis and what it did to people. He then described how the plague overtook the Roman Empire and the devastation it wrought. The epilogue considers the later battle at Yarmuk between Heraclius' forces and the Muslim invaders and how the Empire lost most of its territory, and its ancient heart, in no small part as an effect of the plague.

The historical narrative here is generally excellent, but its pathogenesis and discussion of the plague itself could use some updating; Kyle Harper spends a lot of time talking about what we have learned about the plague since, and agrees about the devastation and import of the black plague. The role of the ferret, the newest and best theory of the real catalyst for black death outbreaks, is not really manifest here.

A great narrative which could use a refresh/update for the 2020s. ( )

Interesting, but not the easiest read. Rosen's writing style includes lots of asides and parenthetical statements, which doesn't always flow well. I learned a lot of history about the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of modern European countries that I did not know. ( )

More about the life and times of Justinian rather than the effect of the bubonic plague. ( )

I particularly enjoyed the authorial voice and hope that his analysis is as accurate as it sounds confident. I loved the big picture connection of so many areas of human history that influenced and participated in this examined era. Admission: I skimmed some parts when battlefield strategy, ancient architecture or the cellular adaptations of plague bacteria ceased to grab me.

From page 255: "The Goths, Alans, Lombards, Burgundians, Saxons, Germans, Thuringians, Frisians, Angles, Suevi, and Jutes (even Gibbon, who never flinched at including details, called them "tribes...whose obscure and uncouth names would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the attention of the reader") were entrants in a tournament that would have few winners and dozens of losers."

I can't locate another quote that speaks of Justinian's enthusiasm for theological inquiry and how we moderns are not able to put ourselves into the place of Christian believers of the time. ( )