
Justinian's Flea
Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe
- Paperback
384 pages
- Release Date
1 July 2008
Summary
Popular history at its best—an epic story in which the newly united Roman Empire under Justinian is decimated by bubonic plague.
In the middle of the sixth century, the world’s smallest organism collided with the world’s mightiest empire. With the death of twenty-five million people, the Roman Empire, under her last great emperor, Justinian, was decimated. Before Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that carries bubonic plague, was finished, both the Roman and Persian empires were …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781844137442 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1844137449 |
| Author: | William Rosen |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Pimlico |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 384 |
| Release Date: | 1 July 2008 |
| Weight: | 497g |
| Dimensions: | 234mm x 153mm x 27mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
William Rosen doesn
William Rosen doesn´t just give us the most believable, the most human and the most fully rounded Justinian ever, he also conjures up a vivid picture of the age, in a compelling style that makes his weighty learning light – Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Millennium and Civilizations
Ambitious and learned…readers will be swept along by the strong current of Mr Rosen’s good natured erudition * Economist *
A massively ambitious work that covers a great deal of ground….. a splendid biography of the emperor Justinian – Ian Pindar * Guardian *
Assertively modern in language and attitude, Rosen’s multi-disciplinary Byzantine history deals not only with fatal microbiology but also celebrates Justinian’s major achievements * The Times *
As a feat of scholarship alone this book is extraordinary, but what really impresses is the sense of ease its author manifests in whatever subject he enters. It’s as if he had been granted the freedom of late antiquity at birth … His eloquence, wit, narrative skill, learning and (one dares to add) compassion, hoist this book abouve the miasma of its deeply sombre subject and make it, strangely, a joy * Independent on Sunday *
Justinan was, as Rosen engagingly sets out, a master statesman…. Rosen carefully weighs his contribution * Financial Times *
About The Author
William Rosen
William Rosen was a senior executive at Macmillan and Simon & Schuster publishing houses for more than twenty-five years, working with authors including Bernard Lewis, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Philip Craig and Tim Clayton, Marina Benjamin, and Robert Lacey. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
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