Reply #41: Not true. Outbreaks of bubonic plague happened before.

[caseymoz]

The one that hit in the 14th Century was the worst. It hit Athens in 430 b.c. and beleaguered Rome all through its history and was probably instrumental in its fall.

The only way I could account for the Black Death is that it was a different and especially virulent strain combined with some unknown vector system-- that is to say, at least one vector that's unobserved in modern versions of the plague. The Black Death stopped ravaging Europe when that vector for some reason, collapsed.