A quiz question · hard
Why was Antioch unusually crowded when the earthquake of May 526 struck?
The chronicler John Malalas transmitted a toll of 250,000 — likely inflated by the festival influx, but marking one of the deadliest earthquakes ever recorded. Fire finished what the quake began.
Read the full story →From the story
The Antioch Earthquake of May 526, Which Killed a Reported Quarter of a Million People in One of Rome's Greatest Cities In late May 526, during the crowds of Ascension week, an earthquake levelled Antioch — then among the greatest cities of the Roman East — and the fire that followed burned most of what stood. The chroniclers' toll of 250,000 is likely inflated but marks a catastrophe of extraordinary scale. The patriarch died; his successor was chosen from the rubble.
Related questions
- In August 1281 the largest seaborne invasion force assembled before D-Day sailed for Japan: 4,400 ships, 140,000 troops, sent by Kublai Khan after a failed first attempt seven years earlier. On the night of 15 August it was destroyed. By what?
- Where was Nero when the Great Fire of Rome began on 18-19 July 64 CE?
- In what year did the Aachen dancing mania — the larger, less famous predecessor of the 1518 Strasbourg outbreak — strike?
- When did the AZF fertilizer plant explosion in Toulouse occur?