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Show J THE PLAGUE OF 3-13. ; a havoc cf death hepihe wHirn I YF-I.LOW i'iVSR Jb HEALTHINESS IX j ITSrLF. j The pestilence of 720 swept aw.y r-2 or niorp ihan two-tbirds of lte 'Totli'O inPrtt-iuoLi of Map-eills, in l-iy iban Gvt wpt-kn; bt of the B.lXt' Hbi-mi u-i Spaniards tluit inhabited llie ".-'urnubs ot Catalans," only 2iXI dif, or less itiat 4 per ceni. The most des:ructivo epidemic recorded m nuiueolic h glory wtw ihe four yers' pii;iie thAt commenced in A. D. 543 nd rngd through the dominions of Otioerotd ihe great, tbe Byzantine emi:ir, nori hern Africa and south-vst.Tn south-vst.Tn Eurnpp. li commenced in Eypt, hp end to ihft east over Persia! null t tie Indies, nnd penetrAted to the west along the coist of Afriv and over tbe continent conti-nent of Europe. Ayia Minor, with its picthonc cities. Constantinople, Norif.ern Ilniy and France Buffered fearfully; euiire provinces were abandoned, aban-doned, eitit H ditrd out aud remained vacant lor many years, and during threw months 5,000 and at last 10.00U persons died at Constantinople eoc'i d'iy! (Gibbon's "History," vol. hi, cbu. iliii.); aud the loi.tl number of ! victini in tbe three continents in variously estimated from 75,000,0t.i' to 120.000. 000 ( Procopius, "Abecdot," chap, xviii.; Cousin's "Hidt.," tome ii., p. 17S). But in Sicily, Mcrocco and Albania, the disease was confined to a lew sea towns', aud ihe Caucasus and Arabia escaped enure y. The dreadful p uo made its first appearance iu Alexandria, Ecyp?, then a luxurious city of 800,000 iu-habitautd, iu-habitautd, and Pauliii Diaconus, a contemporary luistoriau, speaks of tbe "reckless g'ullony by which the inhabitants in-habitants of the gre.it capital incurred yearly fevers and dangerous indigestions; indiges-tions; and at last brought this terrible judgmtut upon themselves aud their innocent neighbors" (lib. ii. cap. iv. ) Alexandria lost 50,000 of her in habitants in 512, and 60.000 in tbe following fol-lowing year, and for miles around tho city tbe field were covered witn corpses; but tbe monks of theNitrian desert (3.0C0 of them bed devoted themselves to tbe tak of collecting and burying the dead) lost only fifty of their fraternity, who, with few exceptions, ex-ceptions, confetsaed that they had ?cretly violated tbe ascetic rules ol their order. |
