541: First Plague in Recorded History Killed Half the World’s Population

Byzantium, the Greco-Roman Eastern Empire that endured for nearly 1,000 years, may seem very far away, like the very distant past to us, nothing that we can possibly relate to. But it echoes still. It experienced the first plague in recorded history, killing about 50 million people, about half the population of the known world.

If you visit Istanbul, T…