Climate of ancient Rome

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The climate of ancient Rome varied throughout the existence of that civilization. In the first half of the 1st millennium BC the climate of

Eastern Roman Empire) spanned three climatological periods: Early Subatlantic (900 BC–175 AD), Mid-Subatlantic (175–750) and Late Subatlantic (since 750).[2]

The written, archaeological and natural-scientific

Mediterranean in c. 1 AD–600 AD due to conflicting publications.[5]

Stable climate

climate change
contributed to that.

Throughout the entire Roman Kingdom and the Republic there was the so-called Subatlantic period, in which the Greek and Etruscan city-states also developed.[7] It was characterized by cool summers and mild, rainy winters.[7]

At the same time there were a number of drastic winters, including the complete freezing of the

Caesar's time reindeer were commonly found in the forests of modern Poland and Germany, whereas in his time reindeer were not observed south of the Baltic.[9]

During the reign of Augustus the climate became warmer and the aridity in North Africa persisted.[10] The biotopes of Heterogaster urticae, which in Roman times occurred farther north than in the 1950s, suggest that in the early Empire mean July temperatures were at least 1 °C above those of the mid-20th-century.[3] Pliny the Younger wrote that wine and olives were cultivated in more northerly parts of Italy than in the previous centuries,[4] as did Saserna in the last century BC (both father and son).[8]

Winds

A comparison of modern

North Atlantic, called the Centennial North Atlantic Oscillation (CNAO).[12]

Precipitation

During the

Roman annexation of Egypt in 30 BC and until 155 AD favorable floods occurred more frequently in the Nile.[3]

The winter of 69/70 AD was the driest known to Tacitus when he wrote his Histories around 100 AD; exactly at the same time the dry season persisted in the Americas.[14] Dry conditions returned during the reign of Hadrian.[14] In Timgad – on Hadrian's visit to that city in 133 rain fell for the first time in five years.[6] Some parts of the empire, however, saw better precipitation. A weather diary, compiled by Ptolemy in Alexandria in around 120, mentioned rain in every month except August and thunder throughout the summer. It helps to explain the agricultural prosperity of Roman Africa (the granary of Rome), and the prosperity of southern Spain in the Roman era.[15] According to Rhoads Murphey, the total yearly grain supply from North Africa to Rome, "estimated as enough to feed about 350,000 people, is by no means impossible to produce for export under present conditions".[6] Columella's weather calendar suggests that summer precipitation in southern Italy, particularly in Rome and Campania, occurred more often than now. Unusually high precipitation levels were in Roman Spain during the so-called Iberian–Roman Humid Period.

Roman Spain experienced three major phases: the most humid interval in 550–190 BC, an arid interval in 190 BC–150 AD and another humid period in 150–350.

Austrian Alps, punctuated by further cool spells from c. 155 to 180.[3] After about 200 the temperatures fluctuated, trending toward cool.[3]

Environmental issues and climate change

According to

foundation of Rome until possibly 165 AD, the Romans deforested huge areas for arable land.[18] In 61 AD Seneca the Younger described the high level of air pollution in Rome, which was associated with the extensive wood burning for fuel.[15]

From c. 200 to c. 290 there was a period of cooling, which affected the northwestern

Eastern Roman Empire there is evidence for a regional prolonged drought in modern central Turkey in c. 400–540 AD.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Bokshchanin, Anatoly; Kuzishchin, Vasily, eds. (1970). Глава вторая. Природа и население древней Италии. Природа Апеннинского полуострова в древности [Chapter 2. Nature and population of ancient Italy. Nature of the Apennine Peninsula in antiquity]. История Древнего Рима [History of Ancient Rome] (in Russian). Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  2. ISBN 1-4020-3264-1
    .
  3. ^
    S2CID 16489531
    . Retrieved 24 Aug 2014.
  4. ^ a b Behringer 2010, p. 62
  5. ^ a b Harris 2013, p. 161
  6. ^ a b c Rhoads Murphey. "The Decline of North Africa Since the Roman Occupation: Climatic or Human?" (PDF). Hunter College of the City University of New York. Retrieved 26 Aug 2014.
  7. ^ a b Behringer 2010, p. 60
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-1-136-63969-2
    .
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-521-31220-5
    .
  10. ^ Behringer 2010, p. 61
  11. ^
    doi:10.1016/0048-9697(93)90220-Z
    . Retrieved 27 Aug 2014.
  12. S2CID 55950382
    .
  13. ^ a b c d Barash, Semyon (1989). "Глава I. История неурожаев и погоды в Европе в древности" [Chapter I. The history of crop failures and weather in Europe in antiquity]. История неурожаев и погоды в Европе [History of Crop Failures and Weather in Europe] (in Russian). Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  14. ^ a b Samuel K. Eddy (1979). "Climate in Greco-Roman History". surface.syr.edu. Syracuse University. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-1-118-58153-7
    .
  16. S2CID 67777837
    .
  17. ^
    ISBN 1-134-45112-1
    .
  18. ^ Harris 2013, p. 173
  19. S2CID 27661057
    .

References
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