I don’t know if I’ve ever read
why Justinian issued a
VOT coinage in
his 13th and 14th years, but Year 13 is before the plague. The Year 14 (XIIII) coin, being from
Carthage, was probably struck during the “Justinian Plague," but it depends on when in Year 14. All the sources I’ve read (a few listed below) say that N.
Africa was utterly devastated by the plague (even more so than
Constantinople and the European / Asian territories of
Byzantium), and
still hadn’t fully recovered centuries later.
[Photo of my example attached.]
There’s some debate about the exact timing (which places did it hit in which months), but here’s my understanding of the timeline:
-
Spring or Summer of 541, Year 14 of Justinian: The Plague hits N.
Africa, especially
Alexandria and Pelusium, from whose ports it traveled into the rest of the Mediterranean. It is believed to have come up from “Kush” /
Axum / Ethiopia.
-
Fall of 541 or Spring of 542, early in Year 15: Plague reaches
Constantinople and soon ravages the city.
-
542, Year 15: Plague reaches the other major cities of the Empire.
Justinian himself famously caught the plague, survived, and bore visible scars for life (presumably from the “bubae” around the neck/face?).
It’s amazing to me that the Year XV coinage (including the huge, impressive AE
Follis) continued to be struck at all. But they started to shrink at that point. I don't know if it was the direct result of the plague, but it’s hard to imagine bronze
supplies could've been maintained during such chaos – especially since wars were breaking out, and the Empire quickly started losing (again) control of N.
Africa and
Italy. (Then again, it seems like
gold coinage may have kept up, though it's not dated, so it's hard to be sure. Did Justinian have other large silver issues after the end of the Carthaginian Siliquae / fractions?)
There is a lot of historical literature on this topic and a few sources from the period (or close to it).
The main classical source:
Procopius of Caesarea. Translated by H. B.
Dewing, 1914.
History of the Wars, Volume I: Books 1-2. (Persian War). Loeb Classical
Library 48.
Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press. Online at Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16764A very useful edited volume, parts of it can be found online:
Little, Lester K., ed. 2007.
Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750.
Cambridge University Press.
Google Books (Preview):
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Plague_and_the_End_of_Antiquity/DKhLOd6gGlACAlso useful, as always: John Julius
Norwich A Short History of Byzantium (1997, Vintage Books, and other editions). See also: John Bagnell
Bury. 1889.
A History of the Later Roman Empire: From Arcadius to Irene (395 A.D. to 800 A.D) .
London: MacMillan.
Google Books (Free):
https://books.google.com/books?id=vUsmAQAAMAAJ