Wikipedia says it became particularly virulent 4000 years ago, so the question isn't "was the plague around before the 14th century", which it clearly was, but

Wikipedia says it became particularly virulent 4000 years ago, so the question isn't "was the plague around before the 14th century", which it clearly was, but "was the 14th century plague which decimated Europe the tail end of a longer-running chain of destruction", which apparently is not what was generally believed.