A few decades after the plague first struck, the army totaled 150,000 and had difficulty mustering 10,000 soldiers to fight.[62] From the 560s onward, the Eastern Roman Empire once again began to lose the western provinces, which it had only just regained, to Barbarian invaders. The Lombards reduced the areas under Roman control in Italy, Slavs and Avars pushed into the Balkans, Visigoths conquered the Roman province of Hispania and Berbers captured much of the countryside in North Africa.
