[rxsid]

"Interesting video - but I would take exception to one of the speaker’s assertions. He claims that one factor that weakened the Byzantine Empire was the Bubonic Plague - but the Arab expansion began in the 7th Century, while the first European appearance of the Bubonic Plague was in Crimea in 1350."

The Black Death and the Byzantine Empire (3:32)

http://www.history.com/videos/the-black-death-and-the-byzantine-empire#the-black-death-and-the-byzantine-empire

And...

"Plague in Europe

The most famous plague outbreak swept through Europe in the 1300s. Dubbed the Black Death, the disease killed more than 25 million people—one-fourth of the continent's population. The nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosy" is traced to the plague's rose-colored lesions and deadly spread.

Earlier outbreaks also decimated Europe. The Justinian Plague claimed as many as a hundred million lives in the Byzantine Empire during the sixth century A.D. "

The question remains...why isn't this information more widely known, especially in our schools?

/rhetorical

[NJ_Tom]

I’m embarrassed to admit that, although I have read up on Justinian’s reign, and particularly his ill-fated attempt to recover the Western Empire with an army under the command of Belisarius, I somehow missed the plague. Thanks for enlightening me!