Professor Kyle Harper

The classical Greek historian Thucydides describes the plague of Athens going back to the 5th century BC as coming from Ethiopia. And since everybody wants to be Thucydides, if you're a historian, he's like the Michael Jordan of historians. He's like the best of all time. And so everybody imitates him.

The classical Greek historian Thucydides describes the plague of Athens going back to the 5th century BC as coming from Ethiopia. And since everybody wants to be Thucydides, if you're a historian, he's like the Michael Jordan of historians. He's like the best of all time. And so everybody imitates him.

The classical Greek historian Thucydides describes the plague of Athens going back to the 5th century BC as coming from Ethiopia. And since everybody wants to be Thucydides, if you're a historian, he's like the Michael Jordan of historians. He's like the best of all time. And so everybody imitates him.

So we never totally know when somebody says something that Thucydides said, if it's reliable or if it's just imitation, but it's our only claim for the geographic origins. But when it gets to the Roman Empire, it spreads everywhere. Latin sources, Greek sources, Christian sources, pagan sources, all describe it as something extraordinary.

So we never totally know when somebody says something that Thucydides said, if it's reliable or if it's just imitation, but it's our only claim for the geographic origins. But when it gets to the Roman Empire, it spreads everywhere. Latin sources, Greek sources, Christian sources, pagan sources, all describe it as something extraordinary.

So we never totally know when somebody says something that Thucydides said, if it's reliable or if it's just imitation, but it's our only claim for the geographic origins. But when it gets to the Roman Empire, it spreads everywhere. Latin sources, Greek sources, Christian sources, pagan sources, all describe it as something extraordinary.

And it certainly contributes to this phase of crisis that I think we should rightly consider the first fall of the Roman Empire.

And it certainly contributes to this phase of crisis that I think we should rightly consider the first fall of the Roman Empire.

And it certainly contributes to this phase of crisis that I think we should rightly consider the first fall of the Roman Empire.

Right. I mean, I think more of the latter. We don't have evidence for major pandemics. There's certainly epidemics. There's certainly this sort of not only the normal stew, but the sort of like normal variation in the death rate where there are going to be bad years.

Right. I mean, I think more of the latter. We don't have evidence for major pandemics. There's certainly epidemics. There's certainly this sort of not only the normal stew, but the sort of like normal variation in the death rate where there are going to be bad years.

Right. I mean, I think more of the latter. We don't have evidence for major pandemics. There's certainly epidemics. There's certainly this sort of not only the normal stew, but the sort of like normal variation in the death rate where there are going to be bad years.

We have literary sources that describe years when there's higher levels of mortality from disease, but there's nothing like the plague of Cyprian where all of a sudden in the record, you have dozens of testimonies and nothing like the plague of Justinian in the sixth century, which is the granddaddy of them all. And yet the fourth century is the most richly documented period of antiquity.

We have literary sources that describe years when there's higher levels of mortality from disease, but there's nothing like the plague of Cyprian where all of a sudden in the record, you have dozens of testimonies and nothing like the plague of Justinian in the sixth century, which is the granddaddy of them all. And yet the fourth century is the most richly documented period of antiquity.

We have literary sources that describe years when there's higher levels of mortality from disease, but there's nothing like the plague of Cyprian where all of a sudden in the record, you have dozens of testimonies and nothing like the plague of Justinian in the sixth century, which is the granddaddy of them all. And yet the fourth century is the most richly documented period of antiquity.

This is something that's sometimes underappreciated. But the fourth century is the most well-documented period of the entire ancient world. And there's various reasons for that. The most...

This is something that's sometimes underappreciated. But the fourth century is the most well-documented period of the entire ancient world. And there's various reasons for that. The most...

This is something that's sometimes underappreciated. But the fourth century is the most well-documented period of the entire ancient world. And there's various reasons for that. The most...

powerful one is that with the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, you have the rapid spread of the faith and you have the sudden entry into what had been theretofore a minority religion of a highly educated elite. And so this is the social background of

powerful one is that with the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, you have the rapid spread of the faith and you have the sudden entry into what had been theretofore a minority religion of a highly educated elite. And so this is the social background of