Because of the severity of the plague, many people took this time to get closer to God in hopes that he would have mercy on them. The plague of this measure was nothing that the people of that time were prepared for, especially the government. Physicians and government officials played pivotal roles in the handling of this plague, but the most important role was played by Justinian, the ruler of the Byzantine Empire at the time of the plague. Emperor Justinian had to act due to the overwhelming amounts of corpses, so he assigned one of his officials named Theodorus to take care of the problem. Theodourus used the money that Justinian bestowed on him and went around the kingdom offering people hefty awards in return for their help in removing dead bodies. Though they were not able to keep up with all the bodies that were constantly being added to the death toll, this act helped tremendously in clearing out the rotting corpses and removing the foul smell that filled the air. According to Sessa, how Justinian handled the care of the dead was “unprecedented”. Unfortunately, the physicians of the time were unable to offer much help due to the science and medicine they had available at that
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