"What if the justinian plauge never happened?" Topic

"in the 6th century the justinian plague happened and wiped out 1/3 to 1/2 of the population of the byzantine empire and led to it weakening and only keeping a big chunk of the balkans and anatolia. what would have happened if the plague never existed…"

From here

link

Armand

For almost a century after the plague, the Empire controlled _more_ land than it did in 500. The Sasanian war had far more to do with weakening both empires – war weariness in Syria and Egypt helping the Arabs to take control with few sieges.

Justinian, or rather Belisarius, would quite possibly conquered more of the old Roman Empire lands in the west.

No plague weakening the Byzantine and Sassanid empires might have had massive and far-reaching consequences if they had snuffed out the Arab Conquest early on. Also no recently redundant Zoroastrian scribes to codify Islam and Judaism.

One of those 'what ifs' that is just too big to make any sensible conclusions.

Thanks.

Armand

What If… the Marcus Aurelius plague never happened? Maybe the Stoic Emperor lives another 20 years and completes the conquest of Germania and outlying areas.

This sort of speculation is interesting to a degree, but diseases aren't as easily quantified or predictable as other human-origin events.