The Fall of Rome

A remarkable study of how devastating pandemics and natural disasters ravaged the vast Roman Empire and contributed to the fall of the most powerful civilisation of antiquity. Historians have been fascinated for centuries by the steep decline of Roman civilisation. In his book, Kyle Harper for the first time places emphasis on the role played by climate change and major epidemics.

Using modern scientific methods and data from 'natural archives' like ice cores or DNA sequencing, Harper reveals that Rome's fate was not written solely by its politicians, soldiers, and surrounding barbarians. Volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climatic instability, and the devastating effects of the rapid spread of viruses and bacteria, made possible by the advanced Roman infrastructure, all contributed. According to the author, the collapse of Rome was, above all, a triumph of nature over human society.

In the second century, at the height of its power, Rome was an unbeatable superpower. A few centuries later, all its resources were depleted and the empire was drowning in political chaos. The book describes the Romans' struggle with ever-worsening climate fluctuations and recurrent outbreaks of smallpox, bubonic plague, and other infectious diseases, which the beleaguered empire could not resist forever. In Harper's sharp reflection on the relationship between humanity and the planet, Rome serves as a memento that the history of our civilisation is written by climatic influences and bacterial evolution to a much greater extent than we are even now able to admit.