
Justinian's Flea
Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe
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Narrated by:
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Barrett Whitener
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By:
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William Rosen
About this listen
In Justinian's Flea, William Rosen tells the story of history's first pandemic - a plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, left a path of victims from Ireland to Iraq, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, Rosen offers a sweeping narrative of one of the great hinge moments in history, one that will appeal to readers of John Kelly's The Great Mortality, John Barry's The Great Influenza, and Jared Diamond's Collapse.
©2007 William Rosen (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The Tragedy of Empire
- From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy
- By: Michael Kulikowski
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The Tragedy of Empire begins in the late fourth century with the reign of Julian, the last non-Christian Roman emperor, and takes listeners to the final years of the Western Roman Empire at the end of the sixth century. Kulikowski traces 200 years of Roman history during which the Western Empire ceased to exist while the Eastern Empire remained politically strong and culturally vibrant.
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A Great History of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity
- By Josh on 01-09-25
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Plagues upon the Earth
- Disease and the Course of Human History
- By: Kyle Harper
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity’s uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues all around us, in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality.
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Waste of time...endless dribble.
- By Kathleen A. Massey on 12-29-21
By: Kyle Harper
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In the Name of Rome
- The Men Who Won the Roman Empire
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Adrian Goldsworthy has received wide acclaim for his exceptional writing on the Roman Empire - including high praise from the acclaimed military historian and author John Keegan - and here he offers a new perspective on the empire by focusing on its greatest generals, including Scipio Africanus, Marius, Pompey, Caesar, and Titus.
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This pie was all crust, no filling
- By JLB on 04-11-17
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Sailing from Byzantium
- How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
- By: Colin Wells
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege.
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The Missing Years
- By Nikoli Gogol on 12-29-07
By: Colin Wells
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The Great Plague
- A People's History
- By: Evelyn Lord
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this intimate history of the extraordinary Black Plague pandemic that swept through the British Isles in 1665, Evelyn Lord focuses on the plague's effects on smaller towns, where every death was a singular blow affecting the entire community. Lord's fascinating reconstruction of life during plague times presents the personal experiences of a wide range of individuals, from historical notables to common folk. The Great Plague brings this dark era to vivid life through stories of loss and survival from those who grieved, those who fled, and those who hid to await their fate.
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Great.
- By Michael S. Henderson on 04-30-25
By: Evelyn Lord
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A Year in the Life of Ancient Egypt
- By: Dr Donald P. Ryan
- Narrated by: Philip Bretherton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Spend a year in the company of the ancient Egyptians, during the twenty-sixth and final year of the reign of Amenhotep II (c.1400 BC), which saw a royal transition bringing Thutmose IV to the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt. Following the Egyptian calendar year, which was divided into three seasons (inundation, sowing and harvest), we will meet a farmer and his family, an embalmer, an artisan, a royal physician, a priest and even a royal wife as they live their lives in Thebes and Memphis during the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom in this year in ancient Egyptian history.
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Nice but only scratches the surface...
- By Lukasz Wsciubiak on 06-15-24
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The Makers of Scotland
- Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings
- By: Tim Clarkson
- Narrated by: David Vickery
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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During the first millennium AD the most northerly part of Britain evolved into the country known today as Scotland. The transition was a long process of social and political change driven by the ambitions of powerful warlords. At first these men were tribal chiefs, Roman generals, or rulers of small kingdoms.
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Good book easy to listen to
- By Jennifer S on 08-14-24
By: Tim Clarkson
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The Third Horseman
- Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century
- By: William Rosen
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In May 1315 it started to rain. It didn't stop anywhere in north Europe until August. Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium. Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe's livestock. Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the Holy Roman Empire destroyed all remaining farmland. After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives - one eighth of Europe's total population.
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Not About Famine or Climate
- By George on 05-24-14
By: William Rosen
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Red Land, Black Land
- Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
- By: Barbara Mertz
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Esteemed Egyptologist Barbara Mertz updates her widely praised social history of the people of ancient Egypt, which was originally published in 1968. Combining impeccable scholarship with a delightfully personal style, the author reconstructs the life of the Egyptians from birth to death, and beyond death, too.
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Brilliant
- By Elizabeth on 04-03-10
By: Barbara Mertz
Solid and Interesting History
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Great writing. Mediocre narration.
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Good, not great
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Good, but dry
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you will need a cast of characters
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This is one of those books that I mark as a must to re-listen.
Brilliant
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In Depth
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A portrait of Justinian's empire
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Great story horrible narrator
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meandering but a joy
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