When I was reviewing an article about the Justinian plague at another site, I came upon these statements: “The bubonic plague seems to have exacerbated the East Roman Empire’s existing fiscal and administrative difficulties, which Justinian had hitherto attempted to address via his provincial reforms. This fiscal instability, as noted earlier, also appears to have been reflected in the coinage.72 A series of light-weight gold coins (solidi) were issued at around this time, seemingly in either 542–3 or 547–50 (the first such reduction in the gold currency since its introduction in the fourth century CE), and the weight of the heavy copper coinage (follis) of Constantinople was also reduced significantly in the spring of 542 (hence at around the same time as the emperor’s emergency banking legislation, which refers explicitly to the disease).” Furthermore, I couldn’t find any reference (or numismatic image) that corroborated this statement: “Emperor Justinian, who (Procopius tells us) caught but then recovered from the plague, seems to have issued a series of coins in 542–3, on which he may have been depicted with either a bubo in his neck or under his chin, or, on one of the coins, possibly wearing a mask covering such a bubo. The feature disappears from the coinage thereafter. The emperor’s recovery, these coins may have been meant to signal to the population of Constantinople, would also be the empire’s (although this reading of the coinage is highly speculative).” https://academic.oup.com/past/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pastj/gtab024/6427314?login=true My question: Is there any evidence that these statements are true? Thanks in advance.
This topic was recently discussed on Coin Talk here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-plague-of-justinian-its-effects.389564/page-2 On page 2 of that thread I posted a bunch of Justinian I folles with what looked like swollen glands, maybe...
Perfect. The information I was looking for. Sorry for the repost. I knew you numismatic folks would have the answer.
Bart, Thanks for sharing this well researched article, it's good to see some current research on a scholarly level . As far as coinage being made showing Justinian with a mask or buboes on his neck is nothing more than BS .
