Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/255

 *chres and cemeteries; the digging of graves in every available patch of ground in the suburbs; the ultimate difficulty of disposing of the corpses by any recognized method, when some were projected into the sea, and others were hurled down the wall towers of Sycae, the roofs having been temporarily removed for the purpose; the stench afterwards pervading the city when the wind set from that quarter; the wailing of the bereaved and the fearful who betook themselves to the churches; the opulent households in which sometimes a few slaves were the sole survivors of the family; the dying left untended and those who fell dead in the thoroughfares while conveying their relatives to the tomb; finally the obliteration of the feud between the Circus factions, and their dejectedly working in harmony for the removal of their own dead and those of others; such were the main features which denoted the state of hopeless desolation prevailing during this calamitous visitation.

The symptoms of this plague have been described by the contemporary historian with an accuracy which leaves little to be added by a modern physician having a clinical acquaintance with the disease. In typical cases the victim at some unexpected moment felt a sharp stab, almost invariably in the groin or the axilla; whence the superstitious declared that they had seen a demon who at the critical instant approached and struck them. Fever, with the development of a bubo at the sensitive spot, rapidly set in; coma or delirium then supervened, and death occurred in three or four days. Black patches often appeared on the body, and were premonitory of an immediately fatal ending. Among the worst signs, vomiting or spitting of blood was also observed. In the most violent attacks the patient without warning fell down in contortions and died before other