Speculation on Laura's new book- Horns of Moses

People keep asking me for snips from the book I am working on. Well, nothing in there is in final form so it's hard to respond to this. However, I finished a section today (and that doesn't mean it is FINISHED) and I would like to share it with everyone because so much of it applies to the weird weather we are experiencing all over the planet. So, yes, you do get an eensy preview though I'm sure you'll be wondering what it has to do with Moses. Never you mind! It will all be clear in the end!

Gregory’s Tour de France

The second loose end I want to tie up is to present just a bit more about all the very strange things that were going on in Western Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire. I’ve argued that there were cometary airburst explosions here and there throughout the period from at least the time of Constantine to some larger events during the time of Justinian which led to the complete collapse of the Empire. What is evident from the archaeology is the massive depopulation which could be due to not just explosively destructive events such as partial destruction of Rome itself and the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside, (the case of Baalbek, and Antioch), but also via comet borne plague – new viruses to which the population had no immunity.

Considering the Tunguska event gives us some idea of what a cometary/asteroidal airburst might do. That body has been estimated to have been something like 40 to 100 meters in diameter and it never reached the ground but exploded at an altitude of about 8 to 10 km with a force equivalent to about 15 megatons. The sound was heard a thousand miles away and the air-burst flattened more than 2000 square km of forest. It scorched trees below its passage, it caused earthquakes and an intense shockwave. The subsequent nights in north-west Europe were abnormally bright because of the matter deposited in the upper atmosphere by the explosion of the body. There was another, similar event in Brazil in 1930 and a third one in British Guyana in 1935, though these were a bit smaller. There were probably 8 or 9 others that exploded over the Earth’s oceans, the only effect that we might have noticed of these latter types might have been the arrival of large amounts of dust in the upper atmosphere.[1] What is clear from our experience with Tunguska and the South American events is that we literally have no way of really detecting traces as such since, after 50 years or so, the vegetation has re-grown and there is nothing on the ground to show what really happened. That is, ancient air-bursts are invisible to us.

But the question is, if you lived during those times, and if such things were going on in your environment, what would you actually have been witnessing? Other than the bits and pieces I have collected together thus far, before the sources dried up completely for most of the Empire, are there other witnesses who could tell us anything that will assist us in getting a real cognitive handle on this thing?

There is Gregory of Tours.

Gregory was born pretty much in the middle of all the proposed action in 539 and died in 594. His home town was Clermont, central France and was the son of a Gallo-Roman senator, Florentius. His mother was the niece of Nicetius, Bishop of Lyons and granddaughter of a Senator of Geneva. That is, Gregory had a number of close relatives who were notable bishops and/or saints! His father apparently died when Gregory was young and his mother took him to live in Burgundy. As an adult, he spent most of his entire career in Tours though he did travel as far as Paris.

Gregory lived on the border of the Gallo-Roman world of the already greatly changed Roman Empire, and the wild frontier of the Franks. Tours was the hub where five main Roman roads met as well as on the banks of the navigable Loire river, so he would have had access to a variety of information sources from travelers. He had personal relationships with four Frankish kings, Sigebert I, Chilperic I, Guntram and Childebert II. His History of the Franks is ten “books” and the first four are a “history of the world from the creation”, but then quickly move on to the Christianization of Gaul, the life of St. Martin of Tours, the conversion of the Franks, and the conquest of Gaul by the Franks, to the death of Sigebert in 575. Books V and VI end with Chilperic’s death in 584. Chilperic and Gregory had a problematical relationship and the king arrested Gregory, threatening his position and life. Gregory retaliated by including a very unflattering description of Chilperic at the end of Book VI. It was not the same kind of revelation that Procopius wrote about Justinian but rather, it was based mostly on Gregory’s over-developed sense of Christian mission vis a vis the king’s resentment of the church’s attempting to usurp his authority. Books VII through X take us to the year 591, and an epilogue was written in 594, the year he died.

The problems with reading Gregory as a historical source become evident fairly early on. He was a Catholic bishop, a member of the senatorial class that had adopted Christianity in lieu of a broad classical education, and the accompanying attitude of superiority of virtue through salvation. He was familiar with the works of Vergil, Orosius and Sallust, but had a low opinion of most of the pagan writers because they were, in his opinion, inspired by Satan. He certainly achieved mastery of the vulgate Bible as the ultimate arbiter of how to conduct one’s life. His views on pagans, Christianity, the Arianism of the Visigoths, and so on, were typical for a person in his position at the time. His lack of a thorough classical education shows in his writing which is vulgar and unpolished and would have made his ancestors of just a few generations back cringe with shame. His purpose in writing seems to have been mainly to destroy heresy wherever he found it so he definitely portrays anything that a pagan or heretic does or says in a negative light, even if they do good, and the evils committed by Christians of the “right persuasion” are either glossed over, given a redeeming twist, or ignored. Still, Gregory was rather likeable; he wasn’t disordered by nature, but rather heavily conditioned to his beliefs and attitudes by training and social and familial influence. He seems to have been a decent person who was convinced of his mission to labor in the fields of achieving hegemony of belief because he had been brought up to believe that was right, good and proper. In short, he was an Authoritarian Follower of a schizoidally deficient ideology.

Gregory’s work, with all the listed caveats, is still of incredible value in gaining some insight on the period in which he lived. What is sad about the whole thing is that, if Gregory’s literary output is a “testimony of the preservation of learning” during that period, as some “transitionalists” would declare, it is a pathetic work in respect of the history of persons, politics, philosophy and culture. Gregory himself tells us in his preface “there is not one man to be found who can write a book about what is happening today…” That suggests strongly that the alleged pockets of Gallo-Roman survival claimed by historians who advocate the “transition to late antiquity” model, were few and far between. Gregory freely mixes religion and politics, viewing all political events through a religious lens which often produced gross distortions. He also freely includes unverified hearsay, miracles and unlikely portents right along with personal observations and experiences that are certainly true.

Having said all that, what I am particularly interested in sharing are Gregory’s observations of environmental events of his time. Because, as background to the marching to-and-fro of armies, and kings and queens coming and going, there were great conflagrations, floods, famine and epidemics. I’ve gone through the books and think that the following excerpts will contribute some data to our topic. I can’t claim an exhaustive search, but what I have to hand is already extensive! I’m going to inset a couple of things from the previous chronology at the beginning just to cue us up to where Gregory fits in the events of the time.

539

Gregory was born three years after the extraordinary 18 month long dust veil event of 536 reported by Procopius and Cassiodorus.

545

The plague moved into southern Gaul. Gregory was six years old. It is commonly said that up to 40% of the population was taken out by this first pass of the epidemic, but it may actually have been more. So the world that Gregory lived in as a child was in the process of a very rapid transition. This may have been the reason that his education was so lacking: the deaths of all of those who could have provided a good, classical education.

557

Constantinople fell to a destructive earthquake. Gregory was eighteen. Justinian’s dreams of re-creating the Imperial unity of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East had already gone down in flames, but the Eastern Empire picked itself up and stumbled on for much longer than the West. After Gregory, there was silence and darkness in Europe for over 200 years. (Though Irish historians continued to write.)

563

Gregory was ordained a deacon.

565

Justinian died. Gregory was twenty-six.

573

Gregory was elected bishop of Tours. Shortly after, the weight of responsibility impelled him to chronicle the events of the past and his own time. He wrote in his introduction:

A great many things keep happening, some of the good, some of them bad. The inhabitants of different countries keep quarrelling fiercely with each other and kings go on losing their temper in the most furious way. … However, no writer has come to the fore who has been sufficiently skilled in setting things down in an orderly fashion to be able to describe these events in prose or in verse. In fact in the towns of Gaul the writing of literature had declined to the point where it has virtually disappeared altogether. Many people have complained about this, not once but time and time again. “What a poor period this is!” they have been heard to say. “if among all our people there is not one man to be found who can write a book about what is happening today, the pursuit of letters really is dead in us!”

I have often thought about these complaints and others like them. I have written this work to keep alive the memory of those dead and gone, and to bring them to the notice of future generations. [2]

As mentioned above, the world in which Gregory wrote was not the Roman Empire of his illustrious ancestors. There had been massive depopulation and hardships already for many years. The carriers of the old culture were dead and gone. Notice this remark of Gregory’s: “… in the towns of Gaul the writing of literature had declined to the point where it has virtually disappeared altogether.” The ancient Roman attitudes of superiority by virtue of class and education (including impeccable speech and writing) had been subsumed by the Church when the senatorial classes had found a place there when the barbarians took over the military and government administration. Within the church they were superior by virtue of religion, salvation, divine inspiration. That, alone, did tremendous damage to learning.

Gregory was as convinced of the Church’s right to govern the rulers as the Roman senators had been convinced of their right to influence and control the Empire and its Emperors. The barbarian kings with which he did business weren’t quite on the same page, but Gregory apparently saw it as part of his mission to establish this point. The Frankish kings, on their side, still felt some unease going directly against a prelate who had friends and influence. There was also some element of superstition and Gregory was right there on every occasion possible utilizing that tendency to manipulate, shame, or harass the rulers with his Christian interpretations of their actions.

Gregory was a meticulous recorder of events, as far as he was able, though obviously extremely credulous about miracles. Nevertheless, there is no way to avoid looking at the Barbarian environment. As the translator of his work writes:

The History of the Franks is spattered with the blood and festering pus, it re-echoes with the animal screams of men and women being tortured unto death: yet Gregory never once questions this effective method of exacting confession, implicating confederates, or simply satisfying the blood-lust of Queens and Kings.[3]

This barbarian lifestyle suited the methods of the Church itself, it seems and truly, what became the Roman Catholic Church was more Frankish Barbarian than Roman.

The knowledge of the Pagan historians was denigrated by the church, an attitude Gregory inhaled in the air he breathed as he grew up, and thus, for the Western Empire, knowledge of the classical past seems to have been taking its last ragged breaths at the time Gregory was writing. After him, it ceased entirely for a very long time. Fortunately, it was preserved in Byzantium but it seems that there was less and less communication between the Churches in the East and West. After Gregory, even more terrible things than he chronicled, as we will see, must have happened to bring on the darkness so completely. And it was in that darkness that the miscegenation of Barbarianism and Christianism brought forth the later Roman Catholic Church.

So, let’s take a look at some of what was going on in the center of Gaul during the life and times of Gregory of Tours.

576-577

…While we were still hanging about in Paris portents appeared in the sky. Twenty rays of light appeared in the north, starting in the east, and then moving round to the west. One of them was longer than the others and shone high above them: it reached right up into the sky and then disappeared, and the others faded away, too. In my opinion they were a presage of Merovech’s death.[4]

My first thought about this was “aurora borealis”. However, the description doesn’t quite fit that. It seems that Gregory and his friends may have seen the ion tails of a close comet that was fragmenting. Mike Baillie writes in The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology:

Because of their friable nature, comets have a tendency to break apart when they are subjected to the tidal forces of a planet. When this happens, each fragment can then become a comet in its own right.[5] […]

…Comets have a dust tail and an ion tail. The dust tail is generally curved following the elliptical path of the comet and can be interpreted as hair, or a beard or column. The ion tail is made of gas that has been excited by the solar wind to emit light; we could think of this as an extremely long fluorescent tube in the sky. The ion tails stream away in a straight shaft of fluorescent light from the comet, in contrast to the curved tail of ejected dust and gas. Comets can have one or more ion tails.[6]

The cluster moved to the west and disappeared, possibly landing in the ocean or simply burning out in the atmosphere.

Three years later, it seems that another large chunk came along only this time, it didn’t burn out in the atmosphere or just pass over and out to sea. Further, it seems that this group came from the West. Further, there were weather perturbations in advance of the event which, based on all the reviewing of the history I have been doing, seem to be related to cemetery activity. The experts suggest that this is due to the comet dust loading of the atmosphere during periods when the earth is moving into such streams. This means that we can identify such periods by unusual or extreme weather even if there are no obvious impact/air-burst events.

580

In the fifth year of King Childebert’s reign, great floods devastated parts of Auvergne. The rain continued for twelve days and the Limagne was under such a depth of water that all sowing had to cease. The River Loire, the River Allier (which used to be called the Flavaris) and the mountain-streams which run into this latter were so swollen that they rose higher above the flood-level than ever before. Many cattle were drowned, the crops were ruined and buildings inundated.

The river Rhone, at the spot where it meets the Saone, overflowed its banks and brought heavy loss to the inhabitants, undermining parts of the city walls of Lyons. When the rains stopped, the trees came out in leaf once more, although by now it was September.

In Touraine this same year, one morning before the day had dawned, a bright light was seen to traverse the sky and then disappear in the East. A sound as of trees crashing to the ground was heard throughout the whole region, but it can hardly have been a tree for it was audible over fifty miles and more.

That means it may have exploded over the province of Orleans or Berry.

In this same year again the city of Bordeaux was sadly shaken by an earthquake. The city walls were in great danger of collapsing. The entire populace was filled with the fear of death, for they imagined that they would be swallowed up with their city unless they fled. Many of them escaped to neighboring townships. This terrible disaster followed them to the places where they had sought refuge and extended even into Spain, but there it was less serious. Huge rocks came cascading down from the mountain-peaks of the Pyrenees, crushing in their wake the local inhabitants and their cattle.

Villages around Bordeaux were burned by a fire sent from heaven: it took so swift a hold that homesteads and threshing-floors with the grain still spread out on them were reduced to ashes. There was no other apparent cause of this fire, and it must have come from God.

The earthquake and fire at Bordeaux, taken together, may suggest an air-burst event though Gregory may not have made the connection and the information he received may not have been clear enough to suggest it.

The city of Orleans blazed with a great conflagration. Even the richer citizens lost their all, and if anyone managed to salvage anything from the flames it was immediately snatched away by the thieves who crowded around. Somewhere near Chartres blood poured forth when a loaf of bread was broken in two. At the same time the city of Bourges was scourged by a hailstorm.

The passage of the fireball and subsequent explosive sounds, coupled with the burning of the city of Orleans again suggests an air-burst event.

A most serious epidemic followed these prodigies. While the kings were quarrelling with each other, dysentery spread throughout the whole of Gaul. Those who caught it had a high temperature, with vomiting and severe pains in the small of the back: their heads ached and so did their necks. The matter they vomited up was yellow or even green. Many people maintained that some secret poison must be the cause of this. The country-folk imagined that they had boils inside their bodies; and actually this is not as silly as it sounds, for as soon as cupping-glasses were applied to their shoulders or legs, great tumors formed and when these burst and discharged their pus they were cured. Many recovered their health by drinking herbs which are known to be antidotes to poisons.

The epidemic began in the month of August. It attacked young children first of all and to them it was fatal: and so we lost our little ones, who were so dear to us and sweet, whom we had cherished in our bosoms and dandled in our arms, whom we had fed and nurtured with such loving care. As I write I wipe away my tears and I repeat once more the words of Job the blessed: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, as it hath pleased the Lord, so is ti come to pass. Blessed be the name of the Lord, world without end.” [7]

At this point, it appears to that we have a sturdy case that we are dealing with the comet fragment phenomenon where some of them explode overhead, some of them may strike the ground in clusters, setting fires everywhere, and some may actually cause earthquakes associated with fires as Prof. John Lewis has proposed. The prodromal weather stresses and the following epidemic is all part of the pattern.

The last passage of the above quote from Gregory is one of the most poignant in the entire work. It suggests that the death toll was very, very high, and that he lost loved ones himself. The epidemic was so widespread that even the Frankish royals were dropping like flies though Gregory was sure to emphasize that this was an opportunity to induce them to convert to his brand of Christianity. King Chilperic fell ill, but recovered. Immediately after, his two sons came down with the disease and there is a long speech put in the mouth of Queen Fredegund where she tries to persuade the king to burn all his tax-demands in the fire so as to appease God and avoid the loss of her children. Both of them died anyway, but according to Gregory, Chilperic was now a changed man because he believed he had been punished by God for his greed. So, of course, he became a lavish donor to the church which is what “Christian charity” was all about back then.

Meanwhile, Queen Austrechild of Burgundy died of the same epidemic. She was the wife of the “good king Guntram” though Gregory didn’t have any kind words for her even in describing her death. It’s worth reading. Then, Nantinus, the Count of Angouleme also contracted the disease and died. He was another evil man in Gregory’s eyes. His death becaome another moral lesson for the good Christian! Finally, Martin, Bishop of Braga and Galicia, died in the slaughter caused by the epidemic. Gregory didn’t say much about that except that he was a very holy and learned man and was mourned by all. Nothing at all was said about how death from the plague was a punishment from God as it was on so many others!

581

At this time a wolf came out of the woods and made its way through one of the gates into the city of Poitiers. Thereupon all the gates were closed, and the wolf was cornered inside the city walls and killed. Some said that they saw the heavens aflame. At the point where the waters of the River Cher mingle with it, the River Loire was even higher than the previous year. A wind from the south raged with such great violence that it knocked down the forest-trees, destroyed houses, carried off fences and blew men off their feet and killed them. This wind devastated an area some mile or more across, but no one ever discovered how far the damage continued. On a number of occasions, too, the cocks crowed at the beginning of the night. The moon was darkened and a comet appeared in the sky. A serious epidemic followed among the common people.

A wind that does the things Gregory describes above and leaves a track about a mile wide, that goes on for some distance, could be a giant tornado which is unusual enough. He doesn’t mention which direction the burning sky is seen, but all taken together, it could have been an airburst causing the sky to appear “in flames” and generating a tornado or a concentrated blast wave.

582

In the seventh year of King Childebert’s reign… there were torrential downpours in the month of January, with flashes of lightning and heavy claps of thunder. The trees suddenly burst into flower. The star which I have described as a comet appeared again, and the sky seemed particularly black where it passed across the heavens. It shone through the darkness as if it were at the bottom of a hole, gleaming so bright and spreading wide its tail. From it there issued an enormous beam of light, which from a distance looked like the great pall of smoke over a conflagration. It appeared in the western sky during the first hour of darkness.

Here Gregory is describing both the dust tail and the ion tail of a comet.

In the city of Soissons on Easter Sunday the whole sky seemed to catch fire. There appeared to be two centers of light, one of which was bigger than the other: but after an hour or two, they joined together to become one single enormous beacon, and then they disappeared.

In the Paris region real blood rained from a cloud, falling on the clothes of quite a number of people and so staining them with gore that they stripped them off in horror. This portent was observed in three different places in that city. In the Senlis area a man woke up one morning to find the whole of the inside of his house spattered with blood.

This is another phenomenon that should be familiar to us today since it has happened numerous times in the past dozen years or so. There was, apparently, a loud sound of an explosion and a flash of light which preceded the rain. Physicists in India theorize that the red rain phenomenon of Kerala is possibly extraterrestrial and the microorganisms have extraordinary characteristics including the ability to grow optimally at 300 C and the capacity to metabolize a wide range or organic and inorganic materials.[8]

This year the people suffered from a terrible epidemic; and great numbers of them were carried off by a whole series of malignant diseases, the main symptoms of which were boils and tumors. Quite a few of those who took precautions managed to escape. We learned that a disease of the groin was very prevalent in Narbonne this same year, and that, once a man was attacked by it, it was all up with him.[9]

Felix, Bishop of the city of Nantes, contracted this disease and became gravely ill. … Bishop Felix seemed to be recovering somewhat from his illness. His fever abated, but as the result of his low state of health his legs were covered with tumors. … His legs festered and so he died … seventy years old.[10]

The portents appeared again [a second time] this year. The moon was in eclipse. …The walls of the city of Soissons collapsed. There was an earthquake in Angers. Wolves found their way inside the walls of the town of Bordeaux and ate the dogs, showing no fear whatsoever of human beings. A great light was seen to move across the sky. The city of Bazas was burned down by a great conflagration, the church and the church-houses being destroyed. [11]

Another air-burst?

583

In the city of Tours on 31 January in the eighth year of the reign of King Childebert, this day being Sunday, the bell had just rung for matins. The people had got up and were on their way to church. The sky was overcast and it was raining. Suddenly a great ball of fire fell from the sky and moved some considerable distance through the air, shining so brightly that visibility was as clear as at high noon. Then it disappeared once more behind a cloud and darkness fell again. The rivers rose much higher than usual. In the Paris region the River Seine and the River Marne were so flooded that many boats were wrecked between the city and Saint Lawrence’s church.[12]

584

In the ninth year of King Childebert’s reign … [his] ambassadors returned home from Spain and announced that Carpitania the district round Toledo, [the capital of the Visigoths] had been ravaged by locusts so that not a single tree remained, not a vine, not a patch of woodland: there was no fruit of the earth, no green thing, which these insects had not destroyed. …

The plague was decimating a number of districts, but it raged most fiercely in the city of Narbonne [also Visigothic]. Some three years had passed since it first gained a hold, and then it seemed to die out. The populace which had fled now came back, but they were wiped out once more by disease. The city of Albi was suffering very greatly from this same epidemic.

At this time there appeared at midnight in the northern sky a multitude of rays which shone with extreme brilliance. They came together and then separated again, vanishing in all directions. The sky towards the north was so bright that you might have thought that day was about to dawn.[13] […]

King Chilperic then left home and travelled some way towards Soissons, but on the journey he suffered yet another bereavement. His son, who had been baptized only the year before, fell ill with dysentery and dided. This is what the ball of fire presaged, the one I described as emerging from a cloud.[14]

The locusts which had ravaged the district round Toledo for five long years now moved forward along the public highway and invaded another near-by province. The swarm covered an area fifty miles long and a hundred miles broad.

In this same year many strange portents appeared in Gaul and the sufferings endured by the population were very harsh. Roses flowered in January. A great circle of many colours appeared round the sun, rather like what one sees in a rainbow when the rain pours down. Frost nipped the vineyards, doing serious damage: then came a terrible storm which battered down the vines and the crops. What was left after this hailstorm was destroyed by a fierce drought. A few grapes remained on some vines, on others none at all. Men were so furious with God that they left the gates of their vineyards wide open and drove in their cattle and horses. In their misery they called down ruination upon themselves and were heard to shout: “We don’t care if these vines never bear shoots again until the end of time!” Trees which had borne apples in July had a second crop in September. One epidemic after another killed off the flocks, until hardly any remained alive.[15]

As the army marched in, Saint Maartin’s church in Brives-la-Gaillarde was burnt down by a terrible conflagration. The heat was so great that the altar and even the pillars, constructed of different kinds of marble, were destroyed in the fire…[16]

Fires don’t usually burn up marble. Sounds like another air-burst.

All this happened in the tenth month of the year. New shoots appeared on the vine-stocks, misshapen grapes formed and the trees blossomed a second time. A great beacon traversed the heavens, lighting up the land far and wide some time before the day dawned. Rays of light shone in the sky, and in the north a column of fire was seen to hang from on high for a space of two hours, with an immense star perched on top of it. There was an earthquake in the district of Angers and many other portents appeared. In my opinion all this announced the coming death of Gundovald.[17]

Obviously, something big and deadly was happening somewhere. The column of fire with the “immense star” at the top of it could very well be a description of a very large airburst explosion at a great distance that probably somewhat resembled a mushroom cloud. Diane Neisius has done simulations on the Tunguska impactor with images that explain this visual almost completely.[18] The artistic rendering at left is based on her simulation and represents the Tunguska explosion some minutes after detonation. The cloud ascended to an estimated height of 60 km until it dissolved.

585

Portents appeared. Rays of light were seen in the northern sky, although, indeed, this happens often. A flash of lightning was observed to cross the heavens. Flowers blossomed on the trees. It was the fifth month of the year.[19]

Gregory’s casual remark that “rays of light were seen in the northern sky…often” is interesting. Either he lived in a period when the aurora borealis was commonly seen at his latitude almost year round, or something remarkable was going on.

While I was staying in Carignan, I twice during the night saw portents in the sky. These were rays of light towards the north, shining so brightly that I had never seen anything like them before: the clouds were blood-red on both sides, to the east and to the west. On a third night these rays appeared again, at about seven or eight o’clock. As I gazed in wonder at them others like them began to shine from all four quarters of the earth, so that as I watched they filled the entire sky. A cloud gleamed bright in the middle of the heavens, and these rays were all focused on it, as if it were a pavilion the colored stripes of which were broad at the bottom but became narrower as they rose, meeting in a hood at the top. In between the rays of light there were other clouds flashing vividly as if they were being struck by lightning. This extraordinary phenomenon filled me with foreboding, for it was clear that some disaster was about to be sent from heaven.[20]

This last description does sound very much like the aurora borealis but with interesting added elements that somehow don’t fit an auroral display.

586

There was heavy rain this year and the rivers were so swollen with water that many boats were wrecked. They overflowed their banks, covered the nearby-by crops and meadows, and did much damage. The Spring and Summer months were so wet that it seemed more like Winter than Summer.

This same year two islands in the sea were consumed by fire which fell from the sky. The burned for seven whole days, so that they were completely destroyed, together with the inhabitants and their flocks. Those who sought refuge in the sea and hurled themselves headlong into the deep died an even worse death in the water into which they had thrown themselves, while those on land who did not die immediately were consumed by fire. All were reduced to ash and the sea covered everything. Many maintained that all the portents which I have said earlier that I saw in the month of October, when the sky seemed to be on fire, were really the reflection of this conflagration. [21]

Here, Gregory tells us that what he saw in the immediately preceding account that sounded a lot like an auroral display, occurred in the month of October and apparently, the destruction of these two islands also occurred then so that leans the observation more toward some sort of airburst event than the aurora. Still, it is an astonishing event.

Many portents appeared at this time. In the homes of a number of people vessels were discovered inscribed with the unknown characters which could not be erased or scraped off however hard they tried. This phenomenon began in the neighborhood of Chartres, spread to Orleans and then reached the Bordeaux area, leaving out no township on the way. In the month of October new shoots were seen on the vines after the wine-harvest was over, and there were misshapen grapes. On other trees new fruits were seen, together with new leaves. Flashes of light appeared in the northern sky. Some said that they had seen snakes drop from the clouds. Others maintained that an entire village had been destroyed and had vanished into thin air, taking the houses and the men who lived in them. Many other signs appeared of the kind which usually announce a king’s death or the destruction of a whole region. That year the wine-harvest was poor, water lay about everywhere, there was torrential rain, and the rivers were greatly swollen[22].

587

This year it rained heavily throughout the Spring, and then, when the trees and the vines were already in leaf, a fall of snow buried everything. There followed such a frost that the vine-shoots were withered, together with any fruit which was already showing. The weather was so bitter that even the swallows, birds which fly to us from foreign parts, were killed by the extreme cold. A curious feature of all this was that the frost destroyed everything in places where it usually did no harm, and yet it did not reach the spots where it usually caused most damage.[23]

588

At this time it was reported that Marseilles was suffering from a severe epidemic of swelling in the groin and that this disease had quickly spread…to near Lyons. (IX. 20)

I want to tell you exactly how this came about. …a ship from Spain put into port with the usual kind of cargo, unfortunately also bringing with it the source of this infection. Quite a few of the townsfolk purchased objects from the cargo and in less than no time a house in which eight people lived was left completely deserted, all the inhabitants having caught the disease. The infection did not spread through the residential quarter immediately. Some time passed and then, like a cornfield set alight, the entire town was suddenly ablaze with the pestilence. … At the end of two months the plague burned itself out. The population returned to Marseilles, thinking themselves safe. Then the disease started again and all who had come back died.[24]

589

Just after Easter this year it rained and hailed very heavily. Within the space of two or three hours great rivers began to flow along even the smallest windings of the valleys. The fruit-trees flowered a second time in Autumn and gave a second crop as heavy as the first. Roses bloomed in November. The rivers ran unusually high. They broke their banks and flooded areas which they had never reached before, doing great damage to the sown fields.[25]

590

In the same year so bright a light illumined a wide spread of lands in the middle of the night that you would have thought that it was high noon. On a number of occasions fiery globes were also seen traversing the sky in the night-time, so that they seemed to light up the whole earth. …

There was a great earthquake very early in the morning on Wednesday, 14 June, just as the day began to dawn. There was an eclipse of the sun in the middle of October. The sun’s rays were so diminished that it gave no more light than the horned moon when five days old. It rained in torrents, there were violent thunder-storms in Autumn and the river-waters rose very high. There was a serious outbreak of plague in the towns of Viviers and Avignon.[26]

In Gaul, the plague which I have so often had occasion to mention attacked Marseilles. A terrible famine afflicted Angers, Nantes and Le Mans. These were the beginnings of sorrows, as our Lord said in the Gospels: “And there shall be famines, and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders in the sky to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” That is exactly what happened at this time.[27]

591

In the April of this year a terrible epidemic killed off the people in Tours and in Nantes. Each person who caught the disease was first troubled with a slight headache and then died. …

In the town of Limoges a number of people were consumed by fire from heaven… Some people were also burnt by this fire in Tours…

There was a terrible drought which destroyed all the green pasture. As a result there were great losses of flocks and herds, which left few animals for breeding purposes. … This epidemic not only afflicted the domestic cattle, but it also decimated the various kinds of wild animals. Throughout the forest glades a great number of stags and other beasts were found lying dead in places difficult of access. The hay was destroyed by incessant rain and by the rivers which overflowed, there was a poor grain harvest, but the vines yielded abundantly. Acorns grew, but they never ripened.[28]

This is pretty much the end of Gregory’s account since he closed his book in 591 and died in 594. And then, Western Europe descended into almost complete darkness for over 200 years. I guess we ought not to be surprised considering the pace of events that Gregory was describing was obviously accelerating in both frequency and severity.

What happened after Gregory, during that time of Darkness, we can only guess.




[1] Bailey, M.El, Markhan, D.J., Massai, S., Scriven, J.E. (1995) The 13 August 1930 Brazilian Tunguska Event, Observatory, 115, pp. 250-53

[2] Gregory of Tours: The History of the Franks (1974) Trans. And with introduction by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin books.

[3] Op. cit., Introduction, p. 15.

[4] V. 18

[5] Mike Baillie (2005) The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology; Tempus.

[6] Baillie (2005) p. 75.

[7] V. 33, 34.

[8] Louis, G.; Kumar A.S. (2006). "The red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial origin". Astrophysics and Space Science 302: 175.

[9] VI. 14

[10] VI. 15

[11] VI. 21

[12] VI. 25

[13] VI. 33

[14] VI. 34

[15] VI. 44

[16] VII. 10

[17] VII. 11

[18] See: http://www.diane-neisius.de/tunguska/index_E.html

[19] VIII. 8

[20] VIII. 17

[21] VIII. 23

[22] IX. 5

[23] IX. 17

[24] IX. 22

[25] IX. 44

[26] X. 23

[27] X. 25

[28] X. 30

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Laura said:

In my usual fashion, since I posted the first draft because it was such interesting info, the section has grown by about three pages and more interesting stuff added... Oy, that's why it takes so long. I don't want to leave anything out!

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seek10 said:

while reading this, part of me so horrified it don't want to live under those circumstances, instead better leave to 5D in grace. It started sounding like cometary thing is not just 3600 year phenomenon, every once in while earth cleaned it self when ever these psychopaths made mess of things. but these pathologicals are some how seems to crop up again and again needing more cleaning. That's we are due to big cleanup. It looks PTB did a great job to getting rid of these references in history with bull -shite- rat diseases, witch hunts etc.

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Laura said:

seek10 said:

while reading this, part of me so horrified it don't want to live under those circumstances, instead better leave to 5D in grace. It started sounding like cometary thing is not just 3600 year phenomenon, every once in while earth cleaned it self when ever these psychopaths made mess of things. but these pathologicals are some how seems to crop up again and again needing more cleaning. That's we are due to big cleanup. It looks PTB did a great job to getting rid of these references in history with bull -shite- rat diseases, witch hunts etc.

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Geeze! And I didn't even include the really horrible "man's inhumanity to man" parts! The way those people were behaving back then was little short of beast in the fields and Gregory didn't say a word against it. That's how a person can be completely ponerized by their environment. But then, the Roman Empire, in spite of its claim to being the most civilized on earth, was unbelievably violent. Senators would give speeches, write poetry, eat delicacies, and then arrange games where dozens of people fought it out to the death and thought that was grand fun. It was like "Survivor" on steroids. Come to think of it, not much different from today.

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seek10 said:

Laura said:

seek10 said:

while reading this, part of me so horrified it don't want to live under those circumstances, instead better leave to 5D in grace. It started sounding like cometary thing is not just 3600 year phenomenon, every once in while earth cleaned it self when ever these psychopaths made mess of things. but these pathologicals are some how seems to crop up again and again needing more cleaning. That's we are due to big cleanup. It looks PTB did a great job to getting rid of these references in history with bull -shite- rat diseases, witch hunts etc.

Click to expand...

Geeze! And I didn't even include the really horrible "man's inhumanity to man" parts! The way those people were behaving back then was little short of beast in the fields and Gregory didn't say a word against it. That's how a person can be completely ponerized by their environment. But then, the Roman Empire, in spite of its claim to being the most civilized on earth, was unbelievably violent. Senators would give speeches, write poetry, eat delicacies, and then arrange games where dozens of people fought it out to the death and thought that was grand fun. It was like "Survivor" on steroids. Come to think of it, not much different from today.

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Exactly like current day Corporate management and politicians. old wine in new bottle. (:

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Laura said:

seek10 said:

while reading this, part of me so horrified it don't want to live under those circumstances, instead better leave to 5D in grace. It started sounding like cometary thing is not just 3600 year phenomenon, every once in while earth cleaned it self when ever these psychopaths made mess of things. but these pathologicals are some how seems to crop up again and again needing more cleaning. That's we are due to big cleanup. It looks PTB did a great job to getting rid of these references in history with bull -shite- rat diseases, witch hunts etc.

Click to expand...

Geeze! And I didn't even include the really horrible "man's inhumanity to man" parts! The way those people were behaving back then was little short of beast in the fields and Gregory didn't say a word against it. That's how a person can be completely ponerized by their environment. But then, the Roman Empire, in spite of its claim to being the most civilized on earth, was unbelievably violent. Senators would give speeches, write poetry, eat delicacies, and then arrange games where dozens of people fought it out to the death and thought that was grand fun. It was like "Survivor" on steroids. Come to think of it, not much different from today.

Click to expand...

seek10 said:

while reading this, part of me so horrified it don't want to live under those circumstances, instead better leave to 5D in grace. It started sounding like cometary thing is not just 3600 year phenomenon, every once in while earth cleaned it self when ever these psychopaths made mess of things. but these pathologicals are some how seems to crop up again and again needing more cleaning. That's we are due to big cleanup. It looks PTB did a great job to getting rid of these references in history with bull -shite- rat diseases, witch hunts etc.

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[542 A.D.] During these times there was a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated. Now in the case of all other scourges sent from Heaven some explanation of a cause might be given by daring men, such as the many theories propounded by those who are clever in these matters; for they love to conjure up causes which are absolutely incomprehensible to man, and to fabricate outlandish theories of natural philosophy, knowing well that they are saying nothing sound, but considering it sufficient for them, if they completely deceive by their argument some of those whom they meet and persuade them to their view.

But for this calamity it is quite impossible either to express in words or to conceive in thought any explanation, except indeed to refer it to God. For it did not come in a part of the world nor upon certain men, nor did it confine itself to any season of the year, so that from such circumstances it might be possible to find subtle explanations of a cause, but it embraced the entire world, and blighted the lives of all men, though differing from one another in the most marked degree, respecting neither sex nor age. For much as men differ with regard to places in which they live, or in the law of their daily life, or in natural bent, or in active pursuits, or in whatever else man differs from man, in the case of this disease alone the difference availed naught.

And it attacked some in the summer season, others in the winter, and still others at the other times of the year. … still at a later time it came back; then those who dwelt round about this land, whom formerly it had afflicted most sorely, it did not touch at all, but it did not remove from the place in question until it had given up its just and proper tale of dead, so as to correspond exactly to the number destroyed at the earlier time among those who dwelt round about.

And this disease always took its start from the coast, and from there went up to the interior. And in the second year it reached Byzantium in the middle of spring, where it happened that I was staying at that time. And it came as follows.

Apparitions of supernatural beings in human guise of every description were seen by many persons, and those who encountered them thought that they were struck by the man they had met in this or that part of the body, as it happened, and immediately upon seeing this apparition they were seized also by the disease. …And they shut themselves up in their rooms and pretended that they did not hear, although their doors were being beaten down, fearing, obviously, that he who was calling was one of those demons.

But in the case of some the pestilence did not come on in this way, but they saw a vision in a dream and seemed to suffer the very same thing at the hands of the creature who stood over them, or else to hear a voice foretelling to them that they were written down in the number of those who were to die.

But with the majority it came about that they were seized by the disease without becoming aware of what was coming either through a waking vision or a dream. And they were taken in the following manner. They had a sudden fever, some when just roused from sleep, others while walking about, and others while otherwise engaged, without any regard to what they were doing. And the body shewed no change from its previous colour, nor was it hot as might be expected when attacked by a fever, nor indeed did any inflammation set in, but the fever was of such a languid sort from its commencement and up till evening that neither to the sick themselves nor to a physician who touched them would it afford any suspicion of danger. It was natural, therefore, that not one of those who had contracted the disease expected to die from it. But on the same day in some cases, in others on the following day, and in the rest not many days later, a bubonic swelling developed; and this took place not only in the particular part of the body which is called "boubon," that is, below the abdomen, but also inside the armpit, and in some cases also beside the ears, and at different points on the thighs.

Up to this point, then, everything went in about the same way with all who had taken the disease. But from then on very marked differences developed; and I am unable to say whether the cause of this diversity of symptoms was to be found in the difference in bodies, or in the fact that it followed the wish of Him who brought the disease into the world.

For there ensued with some a deep coma, with others a violent delirium, and in either case they suffered the characteristic symptoms of the disease. For those who were under the spell of the coma forgot all those who were familiar to them and seemed to be sleeping constantly. And if anyone cared for them, they would eat without waking, but some also were neglected, and these would die directly through lack of sustenance.

But those who were seized with delirium suffered from insomnia and were victims of a distorted imagination; for they suspected that men were coming upon them to destroy them, and they would become excited and rush off in flight, crying out at the top of their voices. And those who were attending them were in a state of constant exhaustion and had a most difficult time of it throughout. … many who were constantly engaged either in burying or in attending those in no way connected with them held out in the performance of this service beyond all expectation, while with many others the disease came on without warning and they died straightway…. For when the patients fell from their beds and lay rolling upon the floor, they, kept patting them back in place, and when they were struggling to rush headlong out of their houses, they would force them back by shoving and pulling against them. And when water chanced to be near, they wished to fall into it, not so much because of a desire for drink (for the most of them rushed into the sea), but the cause was to be found chiefly in the diseased state of their minds. They had also great difficulty in the matter of eating, for they could not easily take food. And many perished through lack of any man to care for them, for they were either overcome by hunger, or threw themselves down from a height.

And in those cases where neither coma nor delirium came on, the bubonic swelling became mortified and the sufferer, no longer able to endure the pain, died. And one would suppose that in all cases the same thing would have been true, but since they were not at all in their senses, some were quite unable to feel the pain; for owing to the troubled condition of their minds they lost all sense of feeling.

Now some of the physicians who were at a loss because the symptoms were not understood, supposing that the disease centred in the bubonic swellings, decided to investigate the bodies of the dead. And upon opening some of the swellings, they found a strange sort of carbuncle that had grown inside them.

Death came in some cases immediately, in others after many days; and with some the body broke out with black pustules about as large as a lentil and these did not survive even one day, but all succumbed immediately. With many also a vomiting of blood ensued without visible cause and straightway brought death.

Moreover I am able to declare this, that the most illustrious physicians predicted that many would die, who unexpectedly escaped entirely from suffering shortly afterwards, and that they declared that many would be saved, who were destined to be carried off almost immediately.

So it was that in this disease there was no cause which came within the province of human reasoning; for in all cases the issue tended to be something unaccountable. For example, while some were helped by bathing, others were harmed in no less degree. And of those who received no care many died, but others, contrary to reason, were saved.

And again, methods of treatment shewed different results with different patients. Indeed the whole matter may be stated thus, that no device was discovered by man to save himself, so that either by taking precautions he should not suffer, or that when the malady had assailed him he should get the better of it; but suffering came without warning and recovery was due to no external cause.

And in the case of women who were pregnant death could be certainly foreseen if they were taken with the disease. For some died through miscarriage, but others perished immediately at the time of birth with the infants they bore. However, they say that three women in confinement survived though their children perished, and that one woman died at the very time of child-birth but that the child was born and survived.

Now in those cases where the swelling rose to an unusual size and a discharge of pus had set in, it came about that they escaped from the disease and survived, for clearly the acute condition of the carbuncle had found relief in this direction, and this proved to be in general an indication of returning health; but in cases where the swelling preserved its former appearance there ensued those troubles which I have just mentioned. And with some of them it came about that the thigh was withered, in which case, though the swelling was there, it did not develop the least suppuration. With others who survived the tongue did not remain unaffected, and they lived on either lisping or speaking incoherently and with difficulty.

Now the disease in Byzantium ran a course of four months, and its greatest virulence lasted about three. And at first the deaths were a little more than the normal, then the mortality rose still higher, and afterwards the tale of dead reached five thousand each day, and again it even came to ten thousand and still more than that.

Now in the beginning each man attended to the burial of the dead of his own house, and these they threw even into the tombs of others, either escaping detection or using violence; but afterwards confusion and disorder everywhere became complete. For slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service of their domestics who were either sick or dead, and many houses became completely destitute of human inhabitants. For this reason it came about that some of the notable men of the city because of the universal destitution remained unburied for many days.

And it fell to the lot of the emperor, as was natural, to make provision for the trouble. He therefore detailed soldiers from the palace and distributed money,… kept burying the bodies which were not cared for. And when it came about that all the tombs which had existed previously were filled with the dead, then they dug up all the places about the city one after the other, laid the dead there, each one as he could, and departed; but later on those who were making these trenches, no longer able to keep up with the number of the dying, mounted the towers of the fortifications in Sycae, and tearing off the roofs threw the bodies in there in complete disorder; and they piled them up just as each one happened to fall, and filled practically all the towers with corpses, and then covered them again with their roofs. As a result of this an evil stench pervaded the city and distressed the inhabitants still more, and especially whenever the wind blew fresh from that quarter.

At that time all the customary rites of burial were overlooked. For the dead were not carried out escorted by a procession in the customary manner, nor were the usual chants sung over them, but it was sufficient if one carried on his shoulders the body of one of the dead to the parts of the city which bordered on the sea and flung him down; and there the corpses would be thrown upon skiffs in a heap, to be conveyed wherever it might chance.

…all, so to speak, being thoroughly terrified by the things which were happening, and supposing that they would die immediately, did, as was natural, learn respectability for a season by sheer necessity. Therefore as soon as they were rid of the disease and were saved, and already supposed that they were in security, since the curse had moved on to other peoples, then they turned sharply about and reverted once more to their baseness of heart, and now, more than before, they make a display of the inconsistency of their conduct, altogether surpassing themselves in villainy and in lawlessness of every sort. For one could insist emphatically without falsehood that this disease, whether by chance or by some providence, chose out with exactitude the worst men and let them go free. But these things were displayed to the world in later times.

… Indeed in a city which was simply abounding in all good things starvation almost absolute was running riot. Certainly it seemed a difficult and very notable thing to have a sufficiency of bread or of anything else; so that with some of the sick it appeared that the end of life came about sooner than it should have come by reason of the lack of the necessities of life. And, to put all in a word, it was not possible to see a single man in Byzantium clad in the chlamys, and especially when the emperor became ill (for he too had a swelling of the groin), but in a city which held dominion over the whole Roman empire every man was wearing clothes befitting private station and remaining quietly at home. Such was the course of the pestilence in the Roman empire at large as well as in Byzantium. And it fell also upon the land of the Persians and visited all the other barbarians besides. ~ (Procopius, THE WARS, Book II, XX)

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The Lord God saw that man’s transgressions had multiplied and ye caused the overthrow of man on the earth, leading to his destruction in all cities and lands. The plague lasted a while, so that there were not enough people to bury the dead. Some carried out the corpses from their own houses on wooden litters and even so they could not manage. Some of the corpses remained unburied for days. Some people did not attend their own relatives’ funerals. God’s compassion lasted at [Constantinople] for two months. (John Malalas)

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Now, for the beginning of this narrative the blessed prophet Jeremiah has proved most helpful to us, being versed in raising songs of lamentation amid groans over the afflictions and the ruin of his people. Thus he would be a model for the present writer – or lamenter – in (putting down) the story of this terrible and mighty scourge with which the whole word was lashed in our days; though this time not over the afflictions of one city, Jerusalem, or of one people only, the Jews … but over (those of) many cities which (Gods’) wrath turned into, as it were, a wine-press and pitilessly trampled and squeezed all their inhabitants within them like fine grapes.

(He would have to weep and lament) over the whole earth (upon) which the command went out like a reaper upon standing corn and mowed and laid down innumerable people of all ages, all sizes and all ranks, all together; over corpses which split open and rotted on the streets with nobody to bury (them); over houses large and small beautiful and desirable, which suddenly became tombs for their inhabitants and in which servants and masters at the same time suddenly fell, mingling their rottenness together in their bedrooms, and not one of them escaped who might remove their corpses out from within the house; over others who perished falling in the streets to become a terrible and shocking spectacle for those who saw them, as their bellies were swollen and their mouths wide open, throwing up pus like torrents, their eyes inflamed and their hands stretched out upward, and (over) the corpses rotting and lying on corners and streets and in the porches of courtyards and in churches and martyria and everywhere, with nobody to bury (them); over ships in the midst of the sea whose sailors were suddenly attacked by (God’s) wrath and (the ships) became tombs for their captains and they continued adrift on the waves carrying the corpses of their owners; over other (ships) which arrived in harbours, were moored by their owners, and remained (so), never to be untied by them again; over palaces which groaned one to the other; over bridal chambers where the brides were adorned (in finery), but all of a sudden there were just lifeless and fearsome corpses; over virgins which (had been) guarded in bedchambers and (now) there was nobody to carry them from (these) bedchambers to the tombs; over highways which became deserted; over roads (on) which (the traffic) was interrupted; over villages whose inhabitants perished all together; over many things of this kind, which defeat all who have the power of speech in (their skill with) words and stories.

Thus over these things the prophet might weep … because of the desolation of the entire habitable earth of humanity, which has been corrupted by its sins; and because the world in its entirety has already been made desolate for some time and has become empty of its inhabitants". … because (God’s) wrath, due to sins, has suddenly turned the holy house of God into a tomb for dead corpses and it reeked of dead bodies instead of living worshippers". … make lamentation, not over one corpse, or over one people, or over an only-begotten son, or over a young man who was snatched away by death, but over (whole) peoples and kingdoms, over territories and regions and over powerful cities which were seized (by the plague) and their dwellings groaned over the rotten corpses (lying) in them.

Thus when I, a wretch, wanted to include these matters in a record of history, my thoughts were seized many times by stupor, and for many reasons I planned to omit it, firstly because all mouths and tongues are insufficient to relate it, and moreover because even if there could be found such that would record (at least) a little from among the multitude (of matters), what use would it be, when the entire world was tottering and reaching its dissolution and the length of generations was cut short? And for whom would he who wrote be writing?

(But) then I thought that it was right that through our writings we should inform our successors and transmit to them (at least) a little from among the multitude (of matters) concerning our chastisement. Even if together with us they are knocking on the gate of the consummation, perhaps (during) this remainder of the world which will come after us they will fear and shake because of the terrible scourge with which we were lashed through our transgressions and become wiser through the chastisement of us wretches and be saved from (God’s) wrath here (in this world) and from future torment.

Perhaps the eye of the prophecy watched these present events and prophesied concerning us, especially since in very deed it has appeared that, "My sword will be drawn forth out of its sheath and will destroy both righteous and sinners", so that it also happened that at a single sign they became a single wine-press, and corpses which were split open, were eaten by dogs and exposed, having been cast about in great terror.

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Now when the chastisement had been fulfilled [in Alexandria] it began to cross the sea to Palestine and the region of Jerusalem; furthermore some terrible shapes also appeared to people at sea.

When this plague was passing from one land to another, many people saw shapes of bronze boats and (figures) sitting in them resembling people with their heads cut off. Holding staves, also of bronze, they moved along on the sea and could be seen going whithersoever they headed. These figures were seen everywhere in a frightening fashion, especially at night. Like flashing bronze and like fire did they appear, black people without heads sitting in a glistening boat and travelling swiftly on the sea, so that this sight almost caused the souls of the people who saw it to expire.

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In this way they were seen proceeding to Gaza, Ashkelon and Palestine and simultaneously with their appearance the beginning (of the plague) took place there. Also (horrors) exceeding by far those previously narrated about the city of Alexandria took place from now on in the whole of Palestine, with the effect that villages and cities were left totally without inhabitants.

Now (we shall speak about) another sign of menace and of God’s just sentence. Since in this way the riches of many people were left unguarded, gold, silver and other things,—the pearls of the world—gates standing open and treasures abandoned, houses full of all (kinds of) objects and everything one could desire in the world, so if it happened that somebody wished to take and gather something in order to take possession (of it), thinking that he would escape, on the very same day the sentence would come upon him.[…]

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We are incapable of telling not only (about) those (events) which took place in Egypt and Alexandria but (also) about those many times as numerous (which) took place (in) the rest of the cities and regions of Palestine, of the whole North and the South and the East as far as the Red Sea.

At the same time that in the region of the capital [Constantinople] these things were as yet known (only) by rumour, since they were still remote, and also before the plague (reached) Palestine, we were there. (Then) when it was at its peak we went from Palestine to Mesopotamia and then came back again when the chastisement reached there also, as well as (going) to other regions—Cilicia, Mysia, Syria, Iconium, Bithynia, Asia, Galatia and Cappadocia, through which we travelled in terror (on our way) from Syria to the capital (during) the height of the plague. Day by day we too—like everybody—knocked at the gate of the tomb. If it was evening we thought that death would come upon us in the night, and again if morning had broken, our face was turned the whole day toward the tomb.

In these countries we saw desolate and groaning villages and corpses spread out on the earth, with no one to take up (and bury) them; other (villages) where some few (people) remained and went to and fro carrying and throwing (the corpses) like a man who rolls stones (off his field), going off to cast (it away) and coming back to take (another stone) and again having thrown (it) upon a heap, returns to pull forth (the next one) and thus rolls (them) the whole day; others, heaping them up, dug tombs for them; (still) others who had totally disappeared, having left their homes void of (their) inhabitants; staging-posts on the roads full of darkness and solitude filling with fright everyone who happened to enter and leave them; cattle abandoned and roaming scattered over the mountains with nobody to gather them; flocks of sheep, goats, oxen and pigs which had become like [p. 88] wild animals, having forgotten (life in) a cultivated land and the human voice which used to lead them; areas that were tilled and full of all kinds of fruits (which) had become overripe and fallen for lack of anyone to gather (them); fields in all the countries through which we passed from Syria to Thrace, abundant in grain which was becoming white and stood erect, but there was none to reap or gather in; vines for which the time to be stripped of their fruits had come and passed: the (following) winter being severe, they shed their leaves while the fruit still remained hanging on the vines, there being no one to pick or press them.

[Snipped some Biblical quotes and moralizing.]

However, in the year preceding the plague, earthquakes and heavy tremblings beyond description took place five times during our stay in this city. These which occurred were not rapid as the twinkling of the eye and transient, but took a long time until the hope of life expired from all human beings and was cut off, as there was no delay after the passing of each of these earthquakes. And thereafter they ceased, (or), as is written in the prophecy, after "the earth had been violently shaken".

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It was at that time that Antioch suffered its sixth calamity from the wrath of God. The earthquake that occurred lasted for one hour and was accompanied by a terrible roaring sound, so the buildings that had been reconstructed after the former shocks collapsed, as did the walls and some of the churches. (John Malalas)

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But three years before the plague, and even in the fourth, until this year, the whole Western land was stirred up and the wars multiplied and grew violent in the city of Rome and in Ravenna which is beyond it, as well as in Carthage which is in the land of Africa. Again powerful, innumerable peoples to which this empire is opposed—some of them indeed with God’s help—were subdued by this empire, that is Rome and Africa and their countries and their kingdoms. Also their kings were led (in triumphal procession) and brought in to this city. Until their end we had watched how they, as well as the rest—everyone of their chieftains together with the captives of their countries—were enslaved.

These are barbarian peoples, which, as is written, "were stirring from the farthest parts of the earth", waxed strong and conquered, laid waste, set fire and plundered. Also they came up to the wall of the city when we were there. They carried off booty from suburban farms and abducted some of its inhabitants, not for one year only but for three, one after another. Because of their power nobody could withstand them. …

Terror fell even upon the emperor and the nobles, and from now on the gates of the palace were covered with iron and made secure; (it was) as if the whole (of the rest) of the city had (already) been taken by them, and (the authorities’) only concern was to make secure the palace. Thus something unheard of happened (now), which had not happened ever since this city was built.

Being frightened they ordered that all the trees up to 100 cubits around the city should be cut down and, since it was the capital, all its contents were faithfully and securely guarded between one wall and the other on the western side, because only there was the wall of stone and elsewhere (there was) the sea.

Tall and strong trees, cedars, cypresses, nut and fig trees, as well as vineyards and gardens, had grown there for one hundred years previously. Now all of them were cut and felled, and people were not able to remove them from their places because of their (great) mass. This destruction of the trees struck everyone with terror, and all were astonished and said:

"Had they not been unaware that (something) evil was decided, things would not have come to this point." But (the authorities) replied and pressed on in confidence, as well as (their) opponents.

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Thereafter also the wind of the East, that is the kingdom of Persia, awoke, gathered its strength and made itself ready (for war) together with all the mighty peoples of the whole East. It stirred up all the kings of the land of the East and they went straight to this land of the Romans. They conquered, marched across (it) and subjugated (all the territory) as far as the great city of Antioch which they besieged. […]

Thus returning to the story and to the series of afflictions, which because of our sins came upon us, we shall now, omitting other matters, tell with sighs and in bitter lamentations about what happened to the city of the emperors, because these (events) are more than anything worthy of lament. Not only we, the miserable, should make lamentation for them, but if it be possible (also) the heavens and the earth. […]

Now when the chastisement came upon that city, in truth the abundance of the benignity and grace of God appeared in it. Although this (chastisement) was very frightening, grievous and severe, it would be right for us to call it not only a sign of threat and of wrath but also a sign of grace and a call to repentance. For the scourge used patience and moderation until it should arrive at the place, Just as when a king prepares to go to battle and gives orders to the commanders of his army saying, "Prepare yourself, make your arms ready and take care of your provisions, for, behold, you will proceed with me to war on such and such a day", and likewise he sends a message in writing to the neighbouring cities, "Now I am coming; be prepared, for when I have come there will be no lingering", so this scourge of the benign grace of God by its silence sent as it were numerous messengers from one country to another, and from city to city and to every place, just as if somebody were to say, "Turn back and repent and beg for (forgiveness of) your wrongdoings, and make ready for yourself provisions of alms from your possessions, for behold 1 am coming, and I am going to make your possessions superfluous."

God’s providence informed (us) about it in such a way that (news) was sent to every place in advance, and then the scourge arrived there, coming to a city or a village and falling upon it as a reaper, eagerly and swiftly, as well as upon other (settlements) in its vicinity, up to one, two or three miles (from it). And until what has been ordered against (one city) had been accomplished, (the scourge) did not pass on to enter the next. In this way it laid hold on (cities and villages) moving slowly.

This is what (also) happened to this city: the visitation came upon it after (the city) had been perceiving the movement of the visitation by hearsay from all over the place for one or two years; (only) then did it reach (the city). But (God’s) grace towards it was both eager and encouraging and in some people here it was truly active.

As in the days of Noah, when that blessed man together with his family heard the message of the threat and of perdition, he grew afraid and did not disregard (it) but took care to build the ark which became (a salvation) for him, for his own life and for all he had, so also in this time in like manner as did that blessed man, many people managed in a few days to build ships for themselves consisting of almsgiving, that these might transport them across that flood of flame; others in pain of tears (achieved it) by almsgiving and also by distributing their possessions to the needy; (still) others by lament and humility, vigils, abstinence and woeful calling upon God. In this way many people who feared and trembled were able to buy for themselves the kingdom.

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Then the onslaught came upon them. Those, however, who neglected and refused to send their riches in advance, left them to others and themselves were snatched away from their possessions, whereas the possessions remained. Both (misfortunes) happened to many people in this city very often.

When thus the scourge weighed heavy upon this city, first it eagerly began (to assault) the class of the poor, who lay in the streets. It happened that 5000 and 7000, or even 12,000 and as many as 16,000 of them departed (this world) in a single day. Since thus far it was (only) the beginning, men were standing by the harbours, at the crossroads and at the gates counting (the dead). Thus having perished they were shrouded with great diligence and buried; they departed (this life) being clothed and followed (to the grave) by everybody.

Thus the (people of Constantinople) reached the point of disappearing, only few remaining, whereas (of) those only who had died on the streets—if anybody wants us to name their number, for in fact they were counted—over 300,000 were taken off the streets. Those who counted, having reached (the number of) 230,000 and seeing that (the dead) were innumerable, gave up (reckoning) and from then on (the corpses) were brought out without being counted.

When those for whom the enshrouders and grave-diggers were (too) few had been removed and (put) in a large common grave, He stretched His destructive hand over the rulers of the world and the renowned in the realm of earthly men, the mighty in riches and those resplendent in their power. From now on the common people, together with the nobles could be seen to be smitten by a single great and harsh blow, and suddenly to fall, apart from a few. Not only those who died, but also those who escaped sudden death (were struck) with this plague of swellings in their groins, with this disease which they call boubones, and which in our Syriac language is translated as ‘tumours’. Both servants and masters were smitten together, nobles and common people impartially.* They were struck down one opposite another, groaning. […]

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Also we saw that this great plague showed its effect on animals as well, not only on the domesticated but also on the wild, and even on the reptiles of the earth. One could see cattle, dogs and other animals, even rats, with swollen tumours, struck down and dying. Likewise wild animals could be found smitten by the same sentence, struck down and dying.

This terrible sign came upon the people of this city suddenly after removal of the poor.

Another sign would separate those to be snatched away from those who would survive and remain (waiting) for either death or life. It appeared in this way: three signs became visible in the middle of the palm of a man’s hand in the form of black pocks which did not depart (from the skin) but (remained) deep (in it). They were like three drops of blood deep within. On whomsoever these appeared, the moment they did so the end would come within just one or two hours, or it might happen that (the person) had one day’s delay. These (signs) were (to be found) on many (people).

To others however, neither this (happened) nor that, but as they were looking at each other and talking, they (began to) totter and fell either in the streets or at home, in harbours, on ships, in churches and everywhere. It might happen that (a person) was sitting at work on his craft, holding his tools in his hands and working, and he would totter to the side and his soul would escape. It might happen that (people) came to the bath to bathe as usual and they would not be able to take off their clothes, but would fall and expire. It might happen that (a person) went out to market to buy necessities and while he was standing and talking or counting his change suddenly the end would overcome the buyer here and the seller there, the merchandise remaining in the middle together with the payment for it, without there being either buyer or seller to pick it up.

And in all ways everything was brought to nought, was destroyed and turned into sorrow alone and funeral lamentations: everyone’s hands were weakened, buying and selling ceased and the shops with all their worldly riches beyond description and moneylenders’ large shops (closed). The entire city then came to a standstill as if it had perished, so that its food supply stopped. There was nobody to stand and do his job, with the result that food vanished from the markets and great tribulation ensued, especially for the people prostrate with exhaustion from illnesses. Only a few were strong (enough) to bring to any bazaar anything worth one obol, but if they wished they took a dinar for it. Thus everything ceased and stopped.

What was most pressing of all was simply that everybody who was still alive should remove corpses from his house, and that also other (corpses) should disappear from the streets by being removed to the seashore. There boats were filled with them and during each sailing they were thrown overboard and the ships returned to take other (corpses). […]

Standing on the seashore one could see litters colliding with each other and coming back to carry and to throw upon the earth two or three (corpses), to go back again and to bring (further corpses). Others carried (the corpses) on boards and carrying poles, bringing and piling (them) up one upon another. For other (corpses), since they had rotted and putrefied, matting was sewn together. People bore them on carrying poles and coming (to the shore) threw them (down), with pus running out of them. And they would return bringing (corpses) again. Others who were standing on the seashore dragged them and threw them down upon boats, piling them up in heaps of two or three and (even) of five thousand (each). Innumerable (corpses) piled up on the entire seashore, like flotsam on great rivers, and the pus flowed, discharging itself down into the sea.

With what tears should I have wept at that time, O my beloved, when I stood observing those heaps, full of unspeakable horror and terror? What sighs would have sufficed me, what funeral laments? What heart-break, what lamentations, what hymns and dirges would suffice for the suffering of that time over the people thrown in great heaps torn open one upon another with their bellies putrefying and their intestines flowing like brooks down into the sea? […]

(With what tears should I have wept) for beautiful young girls and virgins who awaited a joyful bridal feast and preciously adorned (wedding) garments, (but were now) lying stripped naked, and defiled with the filth of other dead, making a miserable and bitter sight, not even inside a grave, but in the streets and harbours, their corpses having been dragged (there) like those of dogs; (for) lovable babies being thrown in disorder, while those who were casting them onto boats seized and hurled them from a distance with great horror; (for) handsome and merry young men (now) turned gloomy, (who were) cast upside down one under another (in a) terrifying (manner); (for) noble and chaste women, dignified with honour, who sat in bedchambers, (now with) their mouths swollen, wide open and gaping, (who) were piled up in horrible heaps, all ages lying prostrate, all statures bowed down and overthrown, all ranks pressed one upon another, in a single wine-press of (God’s) wrath, like beasts, not like human beings. […]

Thus when the bearers became few, the whole city, (once) rich in inhabitants, splendid with power, and opulent, suddenly became a gloomy and putrid tomb for its inhabitants, so that now also the graves were insufficient. And this was more painful than anything, for the (corpses) from the city collected together in tribulation were cast down on boats (and having been transported) from this side across (the bay), were thrown there like dung on the earth and nobody would gather (them).

Also "the empire was sitting in sorrow", as it is written, for (the authorities) learned that the hands of the people who were bringing out the corpses grew weak because they also became fewer and (began to) disappear. The city stank with corpses as there were neither litters nor diggers and the corpses were heaped up in the streets.

Thus when the merciful emperor, in whose days these things took place, learned of it, he stirred himself up with zeal and showed diligence, giving orders for 600 litters to be produced. He appointed a man, his referendarius, whose name was Theodore, who was also zealous in good deeds, and gave him instructions to take and spend as much gold as should be necessary for supervising these matters and for encouraging people with great gifts not to be negligent but to dig large ditches and to fill them by piling up the corpses. This man proceeded with application. He crossed (the bay) northward to the other shore called Sykai and climbed the mountain which was above the city. He took along many people, gave them much gold and had very large pits dug, in every one of which 70, 000 (corpses) were put. He placed there (some) men who brought down and turned over (corpses), piled them up and pressed the layers one upon another as a man might heap up hay in a stack. Also he placed by the pits men holding gold and encouraging the workmen and the common people with gifts to carry and to bring up (corpses), giving five, six and even seven and ten dinars for each load. So also he walked around in the city urging (people) to bring out (the corpses). He himself was ordered to fill every grave he could find, to whomsoever it might belong. Thus by his application the city was gradually rid of the corpses. Everyone who had many corpses (to be buried) went to inform him and he would have them removed.

When this man was walking around in the city, a deacon from our (people) appeared who also was very zealous in these matters. (The referendarius) became aware of him and took him up and now appointed him in charge of the matter of the gifts and (general) custody together with himself.

When they went about they came and found a house all closed up and stinking, while people trembled at its smell. They entered and found in it about twenty people dead and rotten, with worms creeping all over them. Although terror seized them, they brought people, who having received large payments, picked them up in cloaks and removed them bearing them on carrying poles.

Others were found all dead but with babies alive and crying; other women were dead in their beds but the babies, their children, were alive sleeping beside them, holding and sucking their breasts although (the mothers) were dead.

In (some) palaces life expired totally, in others, one remained out of a hundred (nobles), each of whom had been attended by many servants, but (now) had remained alone, or perhaps with few (servants only). But sometimes neither he nor any of his people (remained). Also those who (once) had been served by a multitude of servants, (now) stood and served themselves and the diseased in their homes.

The (imperial) palace was overwhelmed and overcome by sorrow. The emperor and the empress to whom myriads and thousands of commanders and the whole great senate had bowed and paid honour every day, (now) were miserable, and like everybody sank into grief, being served only by few.

(We omit) the rest of these matters which cannot be reported by people at all, (which took place) when devastation and destruction befell this (city), coming upon innumerable people of all kinds, upon many times as many as anywhere else, including the great city of Alexandria. Only now the hearts of people were numb and therefore there was no more weeping or funeral laments, but people were stunned as if giddy with wine. They were smitten in their hearts and had become numb.

What however was painful was that corpses should be dragged out and thrown down, people dealing with other people—with (their) dead—as with dead beasts: they dragged and threw, dazed and upset, (fulfilling) thus what was called in the Scripture "the burial of an ass". It befell everybody here. From now on, as in Alexandria, nobody would go out of doors without a tag (upon which his name was) written and which hung on his neck or his arm.[…]

Thus great terror fell upon the rest of them; from now on gold, silver and also all material goods were despised in everybody’s eyes. A frightful and zealous power laid hold of everything and therefore from now on nobody relied on either gold or other riches, but the faces of all were turned toward and "prepared for the grave.

Those who remained healthy lifted and carried the corpses, some for more pay than others, some for little (remuneration) as they scorned it; some, on the other hand, did not accept any payment at all. Whoever was strong and desired gold was able to collect up to a pound of gold a day and up to 100 dinars, because having no fear for God they took as it pleased them. […]

Thus now in this city, once mighty in (the number) of its inhabitants, desolation and emptiness increased from one day to another.

What more is there to say?—also on those pits into which people were thrown and trodden upon, while men stood below, deep as in an abyss, and others above: the latter dragged and threw down (the corpses), like stones being thrown from a sling, and the former grabbed and threw them one on top of another, arranging the rows in alternative directions. Because of scarcity (of room) both men and women were trodden upon, young people and children were pressed together, trodden upon by feet and trampled like spoiled grapes. Then again from above (other corpses) were thrown head downwards and went down and split asunder beneath, noble men and women, old men and women, youths and virgins, young girls and babies. […]

Those who trampled stood (below) and when a man or a woman or a young man or a child was put (down) they would tread (them) with their feet to press them down and to make place for others. The (corpse) which was trampled sank and was immersed in the pus of those below it, since it was after five or as much as ten days that (the corpses) reached (this place of) pernicious prostration.

…Whom would compunction of heart, terror and sadness not seize as he stood (there) and in great terror and bitter sadness disconsolately watched lovely young men like flowers being seized by their hair, dragged and cast from above into the depths of lowest Sheol: as they fell their bellies were split asunder, and the sight of their youthfulness was laid bare down there: (it was a matter) of great horror; shattering and bitter, with no (hope of) comfort. How can any eye endure seeing these heaps of little children and babies piled up in mounds like dung on the earth? Who would not weep more over us, who behold the sight to which our sins have brought us, rather than over the dead? […]

What words or what mouth, tongue, voice and word would suffice a man to tell about (all this)? How can I, miserable, who have wanted to recount (it), not resemble someone who has fallen into the depths of the sea and, being buffeted hither and thither by waves, can neither touch the bottom, nor is close to reaching the shore, but (instead) is battered and dashed by the heavy and powerful waves and therefore is close to perishing by drowning?

And what more is there to say or tell about the unspeakable things which befell this city more than any other, to the extent that even the wise lost their mind and "the stratagems of the crafty", as it is written, were dissolved and brought to nought? Therefore it was not easy to find anyone who was firm in mind, but, as it is written, "they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and were at their wits’ end". It happened in this way: being stupefied and confused each talked to his friend like men drunk as a result of liquor, thus through drunkenness resulting from the chastisement people were easily led to madness of mind.

(The latter) happened indeed in this city: the demons wanted to lead people astray and to laugh at their madness. A rumour from somebody spread among those who had survived, that if they threw pitchers from the windows of their upper storeys on to the streets and they burst below, death would flee from the city. When foolish women, [out of their] minds, succumbed to this folly in one neighbourhood and threw pitchers out ... The rumour spread from this quarter to another, and over the whole city, and everybody succumbed to this foolishness, so that for three days people could not show themselves on the streets since those who had escaped death (in the plague) were assiduously (occupied), alone or in groups, in their houses with chasing away death by breaking pitchers.

Again it was effected by demons who deceive people that when those who had acted so foolishly by breaking pitchers (started) to lament that they had failed in what they imagined their deception (would achieve, but instead) were drawing closer each day to utter perdition, (the demons then) appeared to them, wishing to mock the garb of piety, that is the (monastic) habit of the "shorn"—of the monks and of the clerics. Therefore when either a monk or a cleric appeared the (people) gave a yell and fled before him, supposing that he was death (in person) who would destroy them. […]

(All in all) not many (people) but (only) few in number could now be seen in this great city, the queen of the world, out of (once) innumerable (inhabitants), thousands and tens of thousands.

Although at the beginning we desisted from recording the memory of these events, three years later, arranging in a story the lamentations one after another, we recorded those matters for the remembrance of the sorrow and afflictions which happened before our eyes.

Also the eastern regions were overwhelmed by the same (horrors) which have not yet come to an end.

We have left these matters for the remembrance of other (people) who will come after (us), in order that when they hear about the chastising of us, fools and provokers, and about the sentence for our sins, they may "become wise", as it is written, and that they may cease to anger that One for whom everything is easy to do, and that they may repent and ask mercy continually, lest this chastisement also be thrown upon them.

The story of the violent plague as was written by the holy John, bishop of Asia, is finished.

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With some people it began in the head, made the eyes bloody and the face swollen, descended to the throat and them removed them from Mankind. With others, there was a flowing of the bowels. Some came out in buboes which gave rise to great fevers, and they would die two or three days later with their minds in the same state as those who had suffered nothing and with their bodies still robust. Others lost their senses before dying. Malignant pustules erupted and died away with them. Sometimes people were afflicted once or twice and then recovered, only to fall victim a third time and then succumb.

I believe no part of the human race to have been unafflicted by the disease for it fell on some cities to such an extent that they were rendered empty of almost all their inhabitants. And during the course of the various visitations, I lost to the disease many of my children and my wife and much of the rest of my kin … For now, as I write this, I am 58 years old and it is not quite two years since the fourth outbreak of plague struck Antioch and I lost my daughter and the son born to her in addition to those [lost] earlier.

The means by which one contracted this disease were diverse and beyond telling. For some perished just through association and living together, others by physical contact, or by being in the same house or even in the market place. Some people had escaped infected cities and themselves remained well, but passed on the disease to those who were not sick. There were those who remained entirely unaffected, even though they lived with many of the afflicted, in fact, coming into contact not only with many sufferers but also with the dead. Others positively embraced death on account of the total loss of their children and family, and for this reason went cheek-by jowl with the sick, but still were not struck down, as if the disease resisted their will.

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When pestilence swept through the whole known world and notably the Roman Empire, wiping out most of the farming community and of necessity leaving a trail of desolation in its wake, Justinian showed no mercy towards the ruined freeholders. Even then, he did not refrain from demanding the annual tax, not only the amount at which he assessed each individual, but also the amount for which his deceased neighbors were liable. (Procopius, SECRET HISTORY)

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That great plague came in the year 543 and it remained for three years. (Zuqnin)

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In the book of John of Asia, the great plague of that year – [542-543], the year 16 of Justinian – is amply covered,[This plague] that since the beginning of the world had no equal and will never be rivaled. The whole universe was absolutely struck by the cruel scourge. It began first amongst the people of South-East India, that is to say the Kous, the Himyarites and others then it reached the so-called “superior” regions of the occident, Romans, Italians, Gauls, Spaniards. We learned that the men became enraged, like dogs, they went crazy, attacked each other, went to the mountains and committed suicide. These events were not considered as the echoes of bad omens yet, but the scourge progressed and reached the lands of Kous, on the confines of Egypt, and from there it spread to Egypt itself. – Like the curved scythe of the harvester, it took possession of the land and progressed constantly. When most of the people had perished, to the point that Egypt came to be deprived of its inhabitants, ruined and deserted, it fell on Alexandria and consumed plenty of people. Those who escaped a quick death were struck by a terrible disease: the tumors of the groin, for some on one side, for others on both sides. Groins swelled, turned black and blue, were filled with water, then occurred large and deep ulcers, which released blood, pus and water, day and night. - With this wound came upon them the scourge by which they were promptly removed.

The mercy of God touched all the poor because they were the first ones to die : on one hand, to show the zeal of the inhabitants of the towns and to provide them with spiritual things, by the burying of the poor ones; on the other hand, because if the calamity had confused them with others, how could we have removed from the middle of public places their rotting corpses and stripped bones, since there would have been nobody to take care of them? They were the first ones to die, while everybody was still in good health to carry them, move them away and bury them.

We had this sign that if the disease began with the youngest of a house, this house was reduced to despair by this sign: because the whole household would die the same way. It happened that up to 12 dariques [note : a darique is a persian gold coin] were given, such amount was barely enough to find someone to take the corpses and throw them away like a dog. It happened that while carrying a stretcher, the four carriers fell and perished. One succumbed while speaking, the other one while running, another died while eating, everyone had lost hope for life, and feared going out saying: "I shall perish in the midst of the house." When one was forced to go out, either to accompany or to bury (the dead), he wrote on a tablet that hung on his arm and that read: "I am so and so, son of so and so, from this neighborhood, if I die, for God, and to manifest his mercy and goodness, go and let it be known in my house, and let my relatives come and bury me.”- This great city reached exhaustion and was ruined; men feared to go into the streets, because of the stench of the corpses and bodies that were eaten by dogs.

Once [Alexandria] was consumed the plague passed over the coast of Palestine and Jerusalem. We saw terrifying specters in the sea. When the plague passed from one place to another, we could see something like a boat of bronze in which sat headless black men and that roamed the sea in a rushed way. They were running in front of Ascalon and Gaza, and it’s through their outbreak that the scourge started in these places. It was even more terrible in Palestine than in Alexandria. Gold, resources, goods were abandoned, and whoever had the desire to take something was seized by the punishment [of God]. - One border city of Egypt perished entirely. Only seven men and a 10 year old child had survived. They went around the city for five days and saw that all the people had perished[…]

This plague1 passed over all the land of Palestine, and the whole region of the North, South, and East, to the regions of Cilicia, Syria, Iconium, Mysia, Bithynian Asia, Galatia and Cappadocia. Stations along the roads were deserted and full of dead bodies; livestock was abandoned, neglected, wandered on the mountains, and there was nobody to gather it! Fields were full of crops and fruits, and there was nobody to harvest them! Time to harvest the vines was already passed, and nobody was there for the harvest! Because everybody on the whole inhabited earth had succumbed. Only one out of 1000 had survived when, after three full years, the plague subsided.

When the plague fell upon the imperial city, it first occurred among the poor. There were days when we carried away 5000 bodies, others 7000, others 12000, and 16000 in one day. <snipped the rest which is much the same.>

Zechariah the rethor also wrote about this curse in these terms:"In the Greek version, in the prophecy of Ezekiel about the … plague, instead of what the Syriac says:" Water will flow from every knee”, it is written: "All sides [of the bodies] will be soiled with pus." This plague of the pustules, manifesting through buboes on the sides and on the groin of men spread from Kous, Egypt to Alexandria, Libya, Palestine, Phoenicia, Arabia, Byzantium, Italy, Africa, Sicily, Gaul it even reached Galatia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Antioch, Osrhoëne, Mesopotamia, and gradually Persia, and even the countries of the North-East. If some of those who were hit by this scourge escaped and did not die, they remained unsteady and staggering. (MtS, Book IX – Chapter XXVIII – Page 235-240)

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Then again in the year … [559 or 555, two dates are given so there is obviously some confusion] together with the terrible chastisements and baleful signs which at that time again and again kept suddenly appearing everywhere in the sky and on the earth, as has been recorded above, the trial of another terrible, abominable and hideous affliction was sent upon that city of Amid, that is, fury, madness and demoniacal possession and, together with them, also an evil error.

First, as if by the operation of the insolent demons, consternation and terror would suddenly fall upon many people when vain rumor spread among them (saying):

“Look, the Persian king with all his army is about to enter the city and to massacre the whole city.”

So with great turbulence people would flee, leaving the city in all directions and on all sides, spreading rumors, inspiring agitation, fleeing and causing all whom they met to flee, whether on the roads or in villages or in all the neighboring cities, all those through which they passed. Fear and commotion would rise in all the regions and cities through which they passed as they were spreading rumors and confirming that Amid had been captured by the Persians, laid waste and (its inhabitants) taken captive, “So flee!” And now (whole) regions all of a sudden went into exile and for many days great confusion and destruction ensued everywhere, until the trial which came upon the miserable people became known and exposed.

After that, people began to bark like dogs, to bleat like goats, (to) howl) like cats, to crow like cosks and to imitate all the voices of every dumb animal. Men and women began to throw themselves upon each other, especially the young, boys and girls; most people were (thus) led astray so that (only) few escaped from that chastisement.

Finally they gathered in groups, confused, disturbed, troubled and disordered, rushing here and there, in the night to the cemetery, going on madly… singling and behaving furiously, biting each other and imitating bugles and trumpets, speaking meaningless and gross words as if (uttered) by a demoniac, bursting out in laughter, using licentious speech and evil curses. Also they jumped, clung to the walls, hanged themselves head downwards, fell, wallowed naked (on the earth) and (did) other things of the kind, so that none of them could even recognize his home or his house. …They were seen to act in various ways, some of them behaving like mad dogs and foaming (at the mouth), others brawling and speaking gross words as if demoniacs … Some of them bowed and knelt as if to pray; others jumped and mounted them to rid – sometimes three or four were riding one upon another…

At another time many of them became alarmed together and cried saying: “Behold, rulers are coming! Behold, kings are entering! Let us run out to meet them!” and so they became confused and many of them together went out in great commotion starting to run rapidly hither and thither all over the city, misbehaving, roaming and rushing, boisterous and confused. [Snipped more of the same.]

This illness of madness and frenzy lasted one year, especially in the city of Amid. Whereas in other cities, Tella, Edessa and other ones, few [people] were chastened by this scourge… Some time after these people had been struck with this strange scourge, each (of them) began little by little to come to his wits. They wept in contrition… some of those who had returned to their wits now went in groups on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the other holy places. (Zuqnin)

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After the many calamities which had fallen upon the city of Amid in Mesopotamia, (after) forty years of persecution by heretics, (after) the plundering of its riches and the ruin of its prosperity experienced the scourge of famine for about 8 years. After the famine, the Lord took pity on the city, and there was fertility: the seed began to grow very well.

In the year [555] the city went through a violent curse, which is the rage, the dementia and the diabolism. … Its inhabitants started barking like dogs, moaning like sheep, clucking like chickens, and imitating all kinds of animals. Young men and girls were throwing themselves upon each other, they were running to the tombs, they were singing, they were biting each other and uttered obscene words. They climbed on top of the walls and hung upside down, and screamed like trumpets. They did not recognize their homes. … (MtS, Book IX – Chapter XXXII – p.267)

Considering what we have already discussed about the probably neurological symptoms of the plague, it almost sounds like this “chastisement” was either the manifestation of the infection in a somewhat resistant population, or the virus could have been mutating.

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