5THE A.D. 526 ANTIOCH EARTHQUAKE

As with all disasters occurring millenia ago, a precise death toll for the Antioch earthquake is hard to come by. Contemporary chronicler John Malalas wrote at the time that about 250,000 people died when the temblor hit the Byzantine Empire city (now Turkey and Syria) in May, 526.

Malalas attributed the disaster to the wrath of God and reported that fires destroyed everything in Antioch that the earthquake did not.

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