["The pestilence vicious was ": "The Black Death" of XIV century in Rus].

The pandemic of plague, that affected Eurasia in middle of 40s - early 50s of XIV century and remained in history as as "The Black Death", became one of the most death-dealing epidemics that ever stroke humankind and recorded in historical sources. Owing to that many documentary and narrative sources remained intact, the history of this pandemic is considered as well examined. This is evidenced by enormous historiography of the problem, including works of the most different character and orientation. Yet, it should be admitted that in national Russian historiography the issues related to history of this pandemic on the Russian land remain to be insufficiently studied. This condition is related to limitation of source base from one hand and to inadequate development of comprehensive approach to exploration of this page of national history. The article, on the basis of analysis of chronicle texts, reconstructs general picture of the pandemic in the Russian land and characterizes its consequences.

[The wars, epidemics and destiny of Empires of Ancient World].

The article considers the features of the impact of epidemics on the course of hostilities and the fate of the states of Antiquity. Three cases are presented as examples. The first one is related to the invasion of the Assyrian King Sennacherib in Judea and the attempt of his troops to take Jerusalem. The second case is related to the epidemic in Athens in the early years of the Peloponnesian war. The third one - with the epidemic in the Roman Empire in the 2nd half of the 2nd century AD. The analysis, based on information from extant sources, permitted to conclude that the intensity and destructive effect of epidemics in the Ancient World increased gradually. To this fact is attributed the effect of "closing" the Oikumena into a single whole. However, the degree of influence of epidemics on the fate of ancient states is greatly exaggerated by the historical tradition, which developed under the influence of emotional descriptions of the tragedies and mass deaths of people.