A.D. 292, pestilence and famine prevailed in England and Wales; it also raged with great intensity in those places, A.D. 310, carrying off, in the latter, 40,000 persons.
A.D. 302, epidemic pestilence (loimos), preceded by famine, broke out in Syria. The account of this pestilential disorder by George Cedrenus appears to be similar to that by Eusebius; he says: “At this time almost every evil that can be enumerated fell upon men—famine, loimos, and drought, with misfortune of a certain disorder; it was an ulcer, the denomination of which was answerable to its affinity with the fiery anthrax, spreading over the whole body: it proved highly dangerous in all respects to the persons affected, but by a particular determination to the eyes in most cases, it produced blindness in thousands of men, women, and children.” Nicephorus says of this disease—“It originated in famine, and was called anthrax; it was an ulceration attracting or draining out humours, with an intolerable stench, which, in spreading over the bodies, extended to and affected with violence the eyelids (κανθοὶ), and occasioned blindness both in males and females.” We are further informed by Eusebius and Cedrenus that the army of Gallienus, in Armenia, was affected with pestilence, which extended to every city in the eastern provinces, and even to villages and lone houses. The great mortality among the poor was attributable more to famine than to the disease; they were obliged to eat hay, grass, roots, &c. The rich, however, were not exempt from this pestilence, but were also carried off in great numbers. The emperor Diocletian, according to Cedrenus, died of the malady: “he was affected with severe pains over the whole body,—a violent phlogosis preyed upon his inward parts, and his flesh melted like wax. In the progress of the complaint, he became totally blind; his throat and tongue putrefied, so that worms came from his mouth, and he emitted an odour not less offensive than that of dead bodies in the sepulchres.” This malady was evidently confluent small-pox.
A.D. 325, epidemic pestilence, preceded by famine, prevailed all over Britain, and in many other parts of the world. During the years 336, 355, 358, 362, 367, 368, and 375, deadly disease, with famine and earthquakes, were again experienced in the British Isles. In Wales alone, in the latter year, 43,000 persons died from pestilence. A terrible earthquake was felt in Macedonia, and 150 cities were swallowed up in Asia and Greece. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions a plague which broke out in Amida, a city of Persia, during its siege by Sapor, which was attributed to the distresses of war, and to the corruption of unburied bodies lying about in the streets, plains, &c.
A.D. 361, there was a terrible famine in Italy. Four years after, 365, severe shocks of an earthquake, with inundations round the Mediterranean, did much damage. 50,000 persons were drowned at Alexandria in the month of July. Italy and Syria suffered from plague, which continued until 394. An inundation of the Nile nearly destroyed the cities of Alexandria and Libya; and rain, storms, and drought were experienced in Judea, which was also visited by immense swarms of locusts. These phenomena were succeeded by dire pestilence. There were several earthquakes at intervals between the months of September and November, which destroyed many places in Europe. During the years 400, 407, 417, and 419, pestilence desolated Asia, Africa, and Europe; a severe earthquake shook Cibyra, and destroyed many villages in its neighbourhood: in 419, an earthquake swallowed up several cities in Palestine. A.D. 442, pestilence swept away great numbers in England this year. A.D. 446, on the 17th of September, at Constantinople, a severe earthquake, attended with fire, pestilence, and famine, caused great misery. The walls of the town with seventeen towers were thrown down. A.D. 458, an earthquake destroyed nearly all Antioch on the 14th of September. Pestilence, about the same period, again broke out in England, and in various other regions, as related by Echard. The Greek ecclesiastical historian Nicephorus, and other writers, state that it prevailed more remarkably in Cappadocia, Galatia, and Phrygia. Isodorus tells us that so great were the famine and disease in Spain, in A.D. 443, that men fed with fury upon each other.
From the year 450 until 467, pestilence raged in Rome; it revisited the city A.D. 473. The year previously, 472, on the 11th of November, at noon, there occurred an eruption of Vesuvius, which ejected flames that were seen at Constantinople, obscured the sun at noon day, and ravaged all Campania: there were ashes four inches deep on the tops of houses many miles distant. A.D. 480, a severe earthquake was experienced at Constantinople, which lasted forty days, causing much destruction of life and property. Epidemic pestilence infested Scotland; and Asia and Africa were nearly depopulated by epidemic disease.
A.D. 502, Scotland was visited by epidemic disease, which destroyed both men and beasts. A.D. 512, there was an eruption of Vesuvius. A.D. 517, Palestine suffered from pestilence, as did the inhabitants of Wales ten years after, in 527. The year previous, 526, Antioch with several other cities was nearly destroyed by an earthquake; it also suffered from a similar visitation two years after, 528, when 4800 of its inhabitants were buried in its ruins.
A.D. 540, so dire a famine was experienced in Italy, that parents were reduced to the cruel necessity of eating their children. About the same period, during the reign of Justinian, a destructive pestilence ravaged the greater part of Europe and Asia for more than half a century. It was at first observed to be plague in its usual form only, attended with tumours in the groin or axillæ, or behind the ears; but in its progress it was found to consist of various disorders, corresponding, in their leading features, according to the description by Evagrius, to “the true pestilence.” These disorders consisted of pestilential or scarlet sore throat, and dysentery, with small-pox and measles. This fatal epidemic is shown to have continued in Asia until the year 590. Some authors have computed the number destroyed during this pestilential period at two millions.
CHAPTER II.
FROM A.D. 543 TO 1330.
A.D. 543, there was a terrible famine, during which, Procopius says, 50,000 labourers died of hunger in the narrow region of Picenum, and a still greater number in the southern provinces. In one place, seventeen travellers were lodged; they were murdered and eaten: two women who were detected in the commission of this atrocious crime were slain. Earthquakes were experienced all over the world. In 544, dysentery, which continued until 548, similating in severity the true plague, committed great ravages in France.
A.D. 552, a severe earthquake was experienced at Constantinople, doing much damage. Nine years after, 561, a similar shock was felt at Rome, and also at Constantinople. The year following there was so great a frost that the Danube was frozen over.