Climate Change and Rome’s Changing Republic

Abstract

AbstractBy the Augustan period, it is clear that Rome had entered a stable and warm period conventionally known as the “Roman Climatic Optimum.” The question as to just how early that climate can be identified is not settled science, but various proxies—most notably 14C and 10Be indications of solar radiation—suggest that it was in more or less full effect by 200 bce. On that provisional understanding, it is worth examining how the climate of the second century could have affected Rome as a “Community in Transition.” This chapter focuses on three particular macrotrends of the period: military expansion, the movement of the population, and the shift from a settled and apparently uncontroversial distribution of Italian land, to a highly contentious situation in which the status quo became challenged. To the extent that this chapter relies on any given reconstruction of the climate, it will of course be provisional and contingent on new climate studies research. Working within our best current reconstructions, however, the goal is to demonstrate to students and scholars how consideration of climate can affect—and eventually become integrated into—our understanding of more conventional historical topics for the period.