The History Of Humanity Flashcards
Why was the Roman Empire so successful in respect to the climate?
North Africa was exceptionally fertile, providing grain for huge swaths of the empire. By contrast, today, that region is a major importer rather than an exporter of grain. Climate conditions helped Rome to prosper, but that prosperity came at a cost. The Roman Empire’s large number of trade routes and high connectedness created a perfect breeding ground for infectious diseases.
What part of Romes success was also a major problem for it?
The key message here is, disease and ill health were always part of Roman life. The same conditions that helped the Roman Empire to prosper also allowed bacteria and viruses to spread uninhibited. Cities were densely packed and well-connected via roads and maritime trade routes, so diseases could travel easily from one population to another. Not only could infectious diseases quickly diffuse across the Empire, but Rome’s cities were horrendously dirty. This made them great petri dishes for intestinal parasites. Aqueducts regularly brought fresh water in and out of cities.
What Roman plaque hit the empire worse than any other and was around 166 AD
Of course, we now know that the plague, which was probably the disease we now know as smallpox, existed inside the Empire well before the day when the noxious vapors were supposedly released. It took hold in the city of Rome in A.D. 166, and it continued its devastation for at least eight years
What caused Romes first fall in AD 246?
Rome is in the midst of its first fall. The roots of the crisis lie in a devastating drought, a new pandemic, and barbarian invasions
What happened when the optimal weather phenomena Rome has experience for the first 2 centuries AD changed?
This period brought with it diminished solar activity and cold began to set in. Glaciers in the Alps crept back after centuries of melting. A deep drought struck North Africa and Palestine. Finally, weak or nonexistent Nile River floods denied the region the water and silts it needed for grain production
What plaque hit the empire starting in AD 541 in Egypt?
Bubonic Plague dealt the first of two fatal blows to the eastern Roman Empire.it came in via black rats on grain ships
What was the final nail in Romes demise?
A major volcano hit in 536. That was just one instance in a larger chain of climate anomalies. A.D. 540 to 541 saw another volcanic winter, and the A.D. 530s and 540s were the coldest decades of the epoch. In A.D. 536, summer temperatures in Europe dropped by an entire 2.5 degrees Celsius, an astonishing figure. This climate era was known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age
A summary of The Roman Empire fall from AD 150 to AD 650
Thanks to recent scientific investigations into natural climate records, we now know more than ever about the environmental conditions that existed across the wide expanse of the Roman Empire. The Roman climate optimum coincided with the height of the Empire’s prosperity, but this naturally warm and wet period ended in AD 150, ushering in a period of climate instability combined with major plague events.
The late antique Little Ice Age and bubonic plague put major stresses on an empire already fractured and stressed by war and invasion, and by the early AD 600s almost all of its territories had fallen to the Arab Caliphate. Got any feedback? We’d love to hear what you think about our content. Just drop an email to remember at blinkist.com with The Fate of Rome as the subject line and share your thoughts.
