The Human Cost
520,000
estimated total dead
Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.
120,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.
400,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.
incl. 3,000 civilians
incl. 5,000 civilians
incl. 500 civilians
How Justinian's Wars's dead compare to other conflicts and events.
10 dead
The Plague of Justinian, which struck during the wars, may have killed on the order of tens of millions across the Mediterranean world over its recurring waves — dwarfing the battlefield toll and crippling the reconquest.
15,000 dead
Belisarius conquered the entire Vandal kingdom of Africa with an army of only about 15,000 men — one of history's most striking examples of a small force achieving a strategic revolution.
300,000 dead
The great killer of the Gothic War was not battle but siege-famine and disease: the repeated blockades of Rome and other cities starved civilians in enormous numbers, and Italy's population collapsed.