Justinian's Flea

Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe

By: William Rosen

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

The emperor Justinian reunified Rome's fractured empire by defeating the Goths and Vandals who had separated Italy, Spain, and North Africa from imperial rule. At his capital in Constantinople, he built the world's most beautiful building, married the most powerful empress, and wrote the empire's most enduring legal code, seemingly restoring Rome's fortunes for the next five hundred years. Then, in the summer of 542, he encountered a flea. The ensuing outbreak of bubonic plague killed 5,000 people a day in Constantinople and nearly killed Justinian himself.

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.

Amost interesting book, but.....

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

There are those books that simply do not lend themselves to being audio books, this is one of them. Page after page after page on the internal workings of a flea and the bacterium that inhabit its stomach are actually fascinating but the information is so heavy that one need be able to flip back and review earlier pages; indeed a few bookmarks would be helpful. With an audio book this is extremely difficult.

The hard copy of the book has several maps which are useful, something which again one loses in the audio format.

Further, the litany of names and places that are necessary in this volume are made easier to remember, in the hard copy, through the presence of an index; without one it is easy to get lost. I found myself need to relistening to several chapters in an effort to ensure the correct placement of personages and places.

Given the above I would not recommend this book. Read it by all means but do not listen to it.

The First Pandemic

This is the story of the eastern Roman empire, how Justinian tried to reunite the empire, and how the plague ended this campaign. Heavy on history including speculation about the origin of the bubonic plague. My greatest learning was how close in time the Justinian plague was to the birth of Islam

Mostly history, lots of plague, altogether awesome

Rich historical storytelling with lots of tasty tangents.
Narrator could be more compelling, but excellent and wide-ranging coverage for fans of Justinian and the Byzantine world. Loved it!

The Book Is Good . . .

. . . but oh my, the narration. Sounds like some sort of smoking cessation tape you put on before falling asleep. At first I thought I'd never make it through to the end. After a half hour, or so, you can get used to the narrator and start enjoying the book. No doubt a 4 to 5 star book, in written form.

Beautifuly Read, Lots of Details

What made the experience of listening to Justinian's Flea the most enjoyable?

First, I buy anything read by Garrett Whitener. Just listening to him read regardless of the text is a joy. As far as this particular book goes, it's all in the inifinite details. There is a theory about the large sweep of history but you have to see it yourself (although it is revealed at the end in case you didn't see it). If you don't like details this isn't the book for you. I've gone back many times to listen in particular to the chapter on the flea itself and the life cycle of the Black Plague vector. I can certainly understand that reviews of the book are binary - you like it a lot or you don't a lot. I like it a lot - a whole lot.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The flea!

Which character – as performed by Barrett Whitener – was your favorite?

I suppose Justinian's wife although Whitener does Roman generals beautifully too.

Any additional comments?

If you don't like this book I recommend you look for others read by Whitener that you may like. He is the all time best reader in my opinion and he does read books of many different genre.

If you want to know...

If you could sum up Justinian's Flea in three words, what would they be?

Linear Historical Briefing

What other book might you compare Justinian's Flea to and why?

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Outline of History - The Fabric of the Cosmos,because it provides a living, breathing story of Goths, Huns, Romans in a linear story with the precision of a Physicist peeling the mystery of the Universe - from string to that other unseen, a Multiverse.

What about Barrett Whitener’s performance did you like?

He knew the story, spoke the language, gave the feel of excitement of a scale of battle we rarely if ever have known, intrigue, and human suffering living in bacterium in the gut of a flea riding the rat from Egypt to every boat, barn and castle across the Roman Empire.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No... maybe respect. Lots of respect and a well done with the weaving of a great unseeable disaster into a story that should teach us what to expect - when we least expect - and to wake up to what we are; as Richard Dawkins wrote, 'self replicating molecules that accumulated survival machines and were emancipated by language... and now we realize we are vulnerable to other self replicating machines... Asimov said it best; We are matter contemplating itself.

Any additional comments?

Good story, well told, worth the time to listen and learn from that parallel universe we call The Roman Empire; they were us in another time.

well done...

I'm at a loss to understand why some find that the narrator didn't do justice to the book... When i first read some of the negative reviews about this narrator i listened to the sample and wasn't quite sure about him...But after finishing the book i have no hesitation in my judgement : 5 stars...

Fantastic book. Too bad Barrett Whitener Sucks. ...

Too bad Barrett Whitener and the producers saw fit to have this terrifically intelligent book performed like a robot. It’s hard to imagine a worse, less human performance.

Totally bizarre.

More unfathomably horrible performances from Audible.

Disappointing...

I had great expectations of learning anout the history of Europe and the impact of the plague, just as promised in the description..unfortunately, the most interesting connections were made in the short epilogue while the rest of the book was more an endless summary of what roman emperor, general, etc. did what when and how long....maybe I was expecting the wrong thing...this was a tough one to finish, not helped by the reader who has the most monotone voice and did not help convey enthusiasm for the story....

DO NOT PURCHASE!!! ITS READ BY A MACHINE!!!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Anyone who will not be lulled into sleep by a robot?

Would you ever listen to anything by William Rosen again?

If it is not read by a machine.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Is it possible to not be distracted by a robot?

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Justinian's Flea?

I have no idea since the robot almost lulled me into sleep.

Any additional comments?

Audible should not have any books read by robots.