Fate of Rome (eBook)

Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire

Kyle Harper (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
440 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-8891-7 (ISBN)

Infos

How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient worldHere is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome's power-a story of nature's triumph over human ambition.Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome's pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a "e;little ice age"e; and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague.A poignant reflection on humanity's intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history's greatest civilizations encountered and endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature's violence. The example of Rome is a timely reminder that climate change and germ evolution have shaped the world we inhabit-in ways that are surprising and profound.

Autor

Kyle Harper is professor of classics and letters and senior vice president and provost at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425 and From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.10.2017
• Reihe/Serie: The Princeton History of the Ancient World
• Reihe/Serie: The Princeton History of the Ancient World
• Zusatzinfo: 20 halftones. 27 line illus. 16 tables. 26 maps.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Schlagworte: Accounting • Aelius Aristides • Africa (Roman province) • Agriculture • Anatolia • Ancient history • Ancient Rome • ancient society • Antonine Plague • Antoninus Pius • archaeology • Aridification • Asia Minor • Avars (Caucasus) • Barracks emperor • Belisarius • Boomer Sooner • bubonic plague • Building • Cassius Dio • Cemetery • Central Asia • Civilization • Claudian • Climate • climate change • Clime • Commodus • Conscription • Constantinople • Coronavirus • coronavirus deaths • coronavirus deaths in us • coronavirus map • coronavirus usa cases • Covid-19 • Crisis of the Third Century • Debasement • Denarius • Dendrochronology • diocletian • Disease • Domitian • Drought • Efflorescence • Ephesus • Epidemic • fall of the western roman empire • famine • Femur • fertility • global warming • Gregory of Tours • Hadrian • hegemony • Holocene • Humidity • HUNS • ice core • imperialism • J. Rufus Fears • laborer • Late Antique Little Ice Age • Late Antiquity • Lucius Verus • Malaria • Malnutrition • measles • Mediterranean Sea • Michael the Syrian • Microorganism • Modernity • mortality rate • Near East • Nile • North Africa • novel coronavirus • pathogen • Pergamon • Plague of Cyprian • Pleistocene • Pliny the Elder • Polytheism • Quadi • Roman Army • Roman economy • Roman Empire • Roman law • Rump state • seasonality • Septimius Severus • Slavery • Smallpox • State Formation • Stilicho • Suggestion • Superiority (short story) • Symptom • Tax • Technology • Trajan • transitional period • Uncertainty • Visigoths • warfare • Wealth • Wuhan • year
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-8891-3 / 1400888913
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-8891-7 / 9781400888917