Quote:
Originally Posted by tredadda
It decimated the Byzantine Empire and contributed to the rise of everyone's favorite religion. When they were still in their infancy and were starting to conquer the ME and many parts of the Byzantine Empire, the Byzantines were so decimated by this plague that they struggled to stop it (which they didn't obviously). Justinian survived it though, but it messed him up good.
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Actually, stopped the westward expansion of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines were well on their way to conquering Italy and were looking to press further.
As for the numbers the East had a much bigger population and was way more urbanized then the West during the dark ages. Greece, Eastern Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt were all parts of the Eastern Roman Empire.