The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
Kyle Harper, a historian at the University of Oklahoma, argues that the long decline of the Roman Empire cannot be understood without the natural forces that ran alongside political and military events. Drawing on paleoclimatology, genomics, and ancient sources, he traces the Roman Climate Optimum that supported the empire's peak, the cooling and instability of the third and sixth centuries, and the major pandemics that struck under Antoninus Pius, in the mid-third century, and during the reign of Justinian. Harper shows how the Antonine and Justinianic plagues, the latter identified as an early outbreak of Yersinia pestis, reshaped demography, labor, taxation, and military capacity. He weaves these biological and climatic shocks together with the familiar narrative of barbarian movements, civil war, and Christianization. The book is a leading example of how environmental and microbial history have revised the standard story of Rome's fall.
What you might want to know about The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A history of the Roman Empire's decline that places climate change and pandemic disease at the center of the story.
Yes. Cowen has praised it on Marginal Revolution as a significant revision to the standard story of Rome's decline, citing its integration of climate and disease into the narrative.
Yes; Harper draws on recent work in paleoclimatology and ancient DNA, including the identification of the Justinianic plague as Yersinia pestis, to revise the older accounts.
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire was written by Kyle Harper, published in 2017 by Princeton University Press.
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire is 440 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.