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

Harper, Kyle

ISBN 10: 0691166838 / ISBN 13: 9780691166834

Edité par Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2017

A propos de cet article

Brodart plastic sleeve. Pictures included in the book. Pages are clean. Book is tight.

N° de réf. du vendeur TJ255721

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World)
• Éditeur: Princeton University Press, Princeton
• Date de parution: 2017
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0691166838
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780691166834
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: 1st Edition
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: Very Good

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

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 world

Here 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 "little ice age" 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.

À propos de l?auteur

Kyle Harper is professor of classics and letters 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.