The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World)

This is a great book. I read a lot of ancient and non-so-ancient history. One of my major interests is in the rise and fall of civilizations. I'm a big fan of Peter Turchin's books on the causes of rise and fall. If you liked William H. McNeill's Plagues & Peoples and want to read something newer buyt focused on just one society and with decades more understanding of genetic history of diseases and of archaeology of the Roman Empire then read Harper's book.Harper does a good job of telling you what is known and what is speculation. For example, the plague during Marcus Aurelius's reign (the Antonine Plague) is very likely smallpox. But the Plague of Cyprian from the 250's AD still is a mystery. Might be smallpox. But more likely either an early severe influenza (think Spanish Flu of 1918) or a filovirus (which includes Marburg and Ebola in the family). It is possible we might know some day.The Readers Digest 3 sentences version of the book: Harper thinks the cooling and droughts brought on by the end of the Roman Climate Optimum (during which it rained in Alexandria 11 months of the year!) and the influx of diseases enabled by the trading routes of Pax Romana) so weakened the Roman Empire it could not defend its borders. He also throws in state development along the borders as another cause. But mainly he points to disease and drought and cooling as the forces that brought down the empire.While I find Harper's case compelling I think Harper is leaving out one cause of collapse that Peter Turchin emphasizes: waning of ability of a state to harness a collective will. Look at the Roman Republic during the first 2 Punic wars by contrast. Italy had Carthaginian armies rampaging around for years. But the Romans refused to consider themselves defeated no matter how many battles they lost. They just kept coming back and fighting. Their willingness to take very heavy losses and not really feel defeated was essential for the survival of the Roman Republic. But centuries of rule by Emperors left the Romans feeling not so personally responsible for the survival of the state.I'm not disputing that absent the diseases and climate change that the Roman Empire would have lasted much longer. But I suspect earlier generations of Romans would not have been so easily defeated by climate change, mass killer epidemics, and big tribal invasions.

This book is certain to stir controversy among those who love classical history. You will want this on your sh The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750 (Library of World Civilization) elves along with the works of Peter Heather The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians , Peter Brown and my favorite, Ward-Perkins The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization . He unfortunately is not that familiar with the works of Raoul McLaughlin The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India . Harper has a wonderful description of the ‘economic efflorescence’ of the ‘Roman Climate Optimum’.This work is concerned with climate change and what the author feels are its positive (yes, climate change can be positive) and negative effects in the Late Holocene. The author identifies 6 causes of climate change: 1) Variations in the tilt of the earth’s axis - 41,000 year cycle. 2) Precession (wobbly spin) of the axis- 26,000 year cycle. 3) Slight variable eccentricity in the earth’s orbit 4) Volcanism 5) Significant variations in the earth’s orbit around the sun, and 6) Anthropogenic change; the least influential.Much of the author’s conclusions are based on teeth and bone analysis which he admits are still in its early stages. I do believe he over-emphasized the ‘plague of Cyprian’, and in general he too readily accepts the force of 4th century urbanization and the positive influence of the Church. He speaks of ‘obscure turmoil’ on the steppes (P.190) but does not seem able to show a definitive linkage with the effects of climate change. He gives a significant role to the force of the barbarian invasions, which overwhelmed the tremendous organic strength of a renewed and reformed Roman Empire.The best chapter was the discussion of the bubonic plague in the age of Justinian. The author feels that the combination of war, plague and climate change (LALIA- Late Antique Little Ice Age) was devastating. Yet, the author has no firm explanation of the ‘years with no summer’ of this period. He suggests volcanism or a meteor impact, but cannot name any suspect volcano or evidence of a meteor strike. The end of the book is overly verbose, philosophical and wanders into the apocalyptic.The Fate of Rome is superbly researched with outstanding notes and bibliography. The maps unfortunately are often unreadable in the print version, but are fine in the kindle edition (where the footnotes are not as convenient.

This book focuses on the link between climate, epidemics of plague and the collapse of the Roman empire. I found it most interesting. It is quite a technical book and best suited to those with an interest in science and enjoy looking at graphs and considering quantitative data. I actually work on population dynamics so it was on the edge of my field. It presents some interesting and well argued ideas on the role of disease and climate on the fate of civilizations. One is left considering what the fate of our civilization will be. I recommend this book.

A fascinating take on the collapse of the Roman Empire, perceiving the many factors which both made a fairly obscure city the master of the Mediterranean and beyond and eventually rendered any such significance historical. While political and military factors are not ignored, the impact alterations in weather cycles and in the ambient disease pool had on these changes is given centre stage.Naturally a degree of sacrifice of small scale detail has had to be made to suit the small number of pages, but this is really only noticeable in the discussion of the ‘barbarian’ cultures of eastern and central Europe. For non-specialists, moreover, more grounding in the history of the northern hemisphere’s weather since the last Ice Age might also have been helpful.

The only disappointing thing about this book is that it ends to soon. Surprisingly so, because while my Kindle told me we have a third of the book left, this turned out to be appendices (valuable), notes (absorbing), a bibliography (impressive) and an index (comprehensive). When I was at school our Latin Master (the great Gordon Rodway) told us the cause of the fall of the empire was a mystery.Now I have an answer to the question that has vexed me for so many years.

Found this a very useful work synthesising environmental science and history.

An interesting and informative read.