Before proceeding to the Arabian authorities, we shall give a brief abstract of Procopius’ description of the dreadful plague which desolated the Roman empire in the reign of Justinian. Its usual precursors were certain delirious fantasies and disturbed dreams, after which the fever made its attack suddenly. The early symptoms, however, were not well marked, for there was neither increased heat nor discoloration of the skin, nor did the patient apprehend danger. Generally on the first or second day, but in a few instances somewhat later, buboes appeared not only in the groin, but also in the armpits and below the ears. Some were affected with deep coma, and others with wild delirium. Some died from sphacelus of the buboes, which, when inspected by the physicians after death, presented the appearance of a _coal_ or _carbuncle_ (anthrax). Some died at the commencement, and others after the lapse of several days. In certain cases the skin was covered over with black phlyctænæ of the size of a lentil, which were usually succeeded by sudden death. Others were unexpectedly cut off by a discharge of blood. To women in the puerperal state it proved particularly fatal. When the buboes came to a proper suppuration, they generally proved a favorable crisis; but when they did not suppurate, they were commonly followed by a wasting of the thigh. One of the common consequences of the fever was an affection of the organs of speech. All the usual prognostics proved fallacious, and the effects of the common remedies were uncertain. In some cases the bath proved beneficial, and in others it had a contrary effect. At one time the amount of deaths in Constantinople ranged from five to ten thousand each day. (De Bello Pers. 22, 23.) This pestilence is described likewise by Agathias (v), and by Evagrius (Hist. Eccles. iv, 29.) It resembled the plague of Avignon, described by Guy of Cauliac.