Historians blame a lot of things for the fall of Rome: Decadence (usually citing Suetonius, the equivalent of the National Enquirer of his day).
And of course, Gibbons blamed those dang Christians.
Climate change probably had something to do with it, since probably climate changes encouraged the movement of the barbarians to migrate, leading to a domino effect of pushing a lot of other tribes to migrate.
But one overlooked factor is Disease. The antonine Plague, the plague of Cyprian, and later the Justinian plague (which was after the western empire had fragmented, but probably stopped Justinian from reforming it).
The History of the Papacy discusses the plague of Cyprian and why it might have led to a huge increase in Christians, mainly because the Christians cared for their sick (who had a higher survival rate) and because they also cared for the pagans who were sick (many of whom converted). MP3
A book written in in 1976, Plagues and Peoples, discusses this in detail, and can be downloaded from internet archives LINK
a shorter article that mentions the book and discusses disease in ancient Rome can be found here at UnivChicagoMagazine.
the article then goes on to note other best sellers about plagues,
HIV decimated the educated class in many African countries, but was localized to certain populations. SARS and MERS are very scary but was kept from becoming a pandemic thanks to old fashioned isolation of cases and contacts.
The various Ebola epidemics (and the epidemics of Yellow fever in Angola and Brazil) were similarly kept localized, partly thanks to isolation and from vaccines.
But the really scary disease would be from an air borne disease.
think Influenza.
The 1918 flu was the last scary pandemic that the world faced.
Well, no one is actually going to be prepared: people will cope as best one can.
And of course, Gibbons blamed those dang Christians.
Climate change probably had something to do with it, since probably climate changes encouraged the movement of the barbarians to migrate, leading to a domino effect of pushing a lot of other tribes to migrate.
But one overlooked factor is Disease. The antonine Plague, the plague of Cyprian, and later the Justinian plague (which was after the western empire had fragmented, but probably stopped Justinian from reforming it).
The History of the Papacy discusses the plague of Cyprian and why it might have led to a huge increase in Christians, mainly because the Christians cared for their sick (who had a higher survival rate) and because they also cared for the pagans who were sick (many of whom converted). MP3
A book written in in 1976, Plagues and Peoples, discusses this in detail, and can be downloaded from internet archives LINK
a shorter article that mentions the book and discusses disease in ancient Rome can be found here at UnivChicagoMagazine.
In the 1960s, historian William H. McNeill, U-High'34, AB'38, AM'39, noticed something missing from other scholars' theories about the history of civilization: disease.
Documenting battles in detail, historians conscientiously scoured archives for accurate body counts and troop movements, but they largely ignored some of the most colossal slaughters ever recorded.
In 165 AD Roman soldiers returning home from war in Mesopotamia brought with them a microbe—smallpox is the best guess. Rome had suffered disease outbreaks before, but the Antonine Plague of 165-180 AD killed more people than any other; a quarter to a third of Rome's population died, including two emperors: Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who gave the pandemic its name.
The Antonine Plague, says McNeill, the Robert A. Millikan distinguished service professor emeritus in history, coincided with the start of the Roman Empire's 300-year decline.
The year 251 AD brought another pandemic to Rome, the Plague of Cyprian, which imposed a similar death toll. Ultimately, "about half the population died," McNeill says. "That has an enormous effect on society."essentially depopulation made the empire too weak to defend itself.
the article then goes on to note other best sellers about plagues,
Jared Diamond published Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies...
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance...
Journalist Charles Mann, meanwhile, wrote 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, a startling history of the pre-Columbian Americas crowded with people before European diseases arrived. Accounts of recent brushes with plague also abound: journalist Richard Preston published The Hot Zone (1994), a harrowing chronicle of the 1989 Ebola outbreak in Reston, Virginia; and Demon in the Freezer (2002), about the eradication of smallpox and the last strains that are still kept in storage. The list is long, and Plagues and Peoples is at the head of it.every once in awhile, one reads about how the modern world is not prepared for the next mass epidemic.
HIV decimated the educated class in many African countries, but was localized to certain populations. SARS and MERS are very scary but was kept from becoming a pandemic thanks to old fashioned isolation of cases and contacts.
The various Ebola epidemics (and the epidemics of Yellow fever in Angola and Brazil) were similarly kept localized, partly thanks to isolation and from vaccines.
But the really scary disease would be from an air borne disease.
think Influenza.
The 1918 flu was the last scary pandemic that the world faced.
Well, no one is actually going to be prepared: people will cope as best one can.
