Changes

Initially, they may have benefited, as they were able to make advances on the Byzantines in Armenia and the Levant. However, this began a series of long-term wars with the Byzantines that likely depleted their forces over time. This pandemic enabled the Sasanians to be more easily conquered in the 7th century by the rising Arabs.<ref>For more on the events during the plague, see: Little, L.K. (Ed.), 2008. <i>Plague and the end of antiquity: the pandemic of 541-750</i>, Paperback ed. ed. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, NY. </ref>

[[File:112719 bb plague feat-1028x579.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Figure 2. The historical impact of the plague is hard to determine but likely made the Byzantine Empire far weaker than it otherwise would have been.]]

The immediate consequence of the plague was that it severely limited Byzantine expansion across southern Europe, ending Justinian's dream of reuniting the Roman Empire.

However, it may have also resulted in Northern Europe following a different political and social trajectory. ensuring that its history was less affected by the Mediterranean region in subsequent centuries and the Medieval Period, northern Europe developed very differently from the Mediterranean regions. <ref>For more on the historical impact, see: Bray, R.S., 2004. <i>Armies of pestilence the effects of pandemics on history</i>. Clarke, Cambridge.</ref>

Many of these lands, particularly Jerusalem, Egypt, and Antioch, were critical to the Byzantines. Thus, the Byzantines launched a series of wars to recover these areas. This effort depleted both empires, leading to their weakened states. With these two great empires that effectively controlled the most important cities west of India weakened, the situation did enable the rising Arabs in the mid-7th century to take advantage of the declining powers across the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean. At this point, both those great empires were a shadow of their earlier versions.<ref>For more on the political and social change that occurred in the 6th and 7th centuries, perhaps resulting from the plague, see: Shepard, J. (Ed.), 2008. <i>The Cambridge history of the Byzantine Empire c. 500-1492</i>. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK ; New York.</ref>