We have already adduced evidence to show that Hippocrates also was familiar with bubonic plague in its sporadic, but probably not in its epidemic form. Galen,[121] too, discusses the relation of buboes to fever in such a manner as to show that he also was acquainted with a severe bubonic malady, distinct from ordinary septic buboes. Oribasius also is cognizant of bubonic fevers, but it may be asserted generally that neither Galen nor Oribasius shows any signs of knowing them as a prevalent epidemic pestilence. We may, then, justly say that the narrative of Procopius affords the first unequivocal description of an epidemic of bubonic plague.
According to Procopius[122] the plague began at the ill-starred Pelusium, spreading in one direction through Alexandria and Egypt, in another through Palestine, and thence throughout the world, which would have meant to him from the eastern limits of Persia as far westward as the shores of the Atlantic. In the light of modern knowledge it is probable that Pelusium was no more than a distributing centre _en route_, and that the true focus of origin lay much further back along the commercial highways to the east or south. Of its pandemic character, however, we have the fullest confirmation in a succession of historical records. Evagrius[123] says that its total duration was fifty-two years, and this also it is possible to substantiate from the annexed table of its offsets, along with the names of the authorities for each locality.
A.D. 540 Antioch Evagrius. A.D. 542 Byzantium Procopius. A.D. 549 Arles Gregory of Tours. A.D. 558 Byzantium Agathias. A.D. 565 Liguria Paul the Deacon. A.D. 567 Auvergne Gregory of Tours. Narbonne Gregory of Tours. A.D. 587 Marseilles Gregory of Tours. A.D. 590 Rome Gregory of Tours. Paul the Deacon. John the Deacon. A.D. 590 Avignon Gregory of Tours. A.D. 591 Strasbourg Oseas Schadaeus.
Procopius describes the plague as progressing by definite stages, expending its virulence on one country before passing to another, as though intent on overlooking nothing. Indeed, if at first it touched a place lightly, it always returned to it subsequently, till the full measure of punishment was exacted. Always beginning at the sea-coast it spread into the interior, so that the infection in the first place was clearly sea-borne. He states that it took over a year to reach Byzantium, where it made its appearance in the spring of A.D. 542. We know, however, from Evagrius that plague was already in Antioch in A.D. 540, earlier, therefore, than the date of its alleged appearance in Pelusium.