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 Italy was more humid and cool than now and the presently arid south saw more precipitation. [1] The northern regions were situated in the temperate climate zone, while the rest of Italy was in the subtropics, having a warm and mild climate. [1] During the annual melt of the mountain snow even small rivers would overflow, swamping the terrain (Tuscany and the Pontine Marshes were deemed impassable in antiquity). [1] The existence of Roman civilization (including the Eastern Roman Empire) spanned three climatological periods: Early Subatlantic (900 BC–175 AD), Mid-Subatlantic (175–750) and Late Subatlantic (since 750). [2]

Roman Italy Italian peninsula during the Roman Empire

Italia was the homeland of the Romans and metropole of Rome's empire in classical antiquity. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the new home promised by Jupiter to Aeneas of Troy and his descendants, ancestors of the founders of Rome. Aside from the legendary accounts, Rome was an Italian city-state that changed its form of government from Kingdom to Republic and then grew within the context of a peninsula dominated by the Etruscans in the centre, the Greeks in the south, and the Celts in the North.

Precipitation product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapour that falls under gravity

In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates". Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called "showers."

Temperate climate hovers around the same temperature

In geography, the temperate or tepid climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes, which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout the year and more distinct seasonal changes compared to tropical climates, where such variations are often small. They typically feature four distinct seasons, Summer the warmest, Autumn the transitioning season to Winter, the colder season, and Spring the transitioning season from winter back into summer. On the northern hemisphere the year starts with winter, transitions in the first halfyear trough spring into summer which is in mid-year, then at the second halfyear trough autumn into winter at year-end. On the southern hemisphere seasons are swapped with summer in between years and winter in mid-year.

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The written, archaeological and natural-scientific proxy evidence independently but consistently shows that during the period of the Roman Empire's maximum expansion and final crisis, the climate underwent changes. [3] The Empire's greatest extent under Trajan coincided with the Roman climatic optimum. [4] The climate change occurred at different rates, from apparent near stasis during the early Empire to rapid fluctuations during the late Empire. [3] Still, there is some controversy in the notion of a generally moister period in the eastern Mediterranean in c. 1 AD–600 AD due to conflicting publications. [5]

Proxy (climate) Preserved physical characteristics allowing reconstruction of past climatic conditions

In the study of past climates ("paleoclimatology"), climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth's history. Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s, and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began.

Roman Empire period of Imperial Rome following the Roman Republic (27 BC–395 AD)

The Roman Empire was the post-Roman Republic period of the ancient Roman civilization. An Iron Age civilization, it had a government headed by emperors and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. From the constitutional reforms of Augustus to the military anarchy of the third century, the Empire was a principate ruled from the city of Rome. The Roman Empire was then divided between a Western Roman Empire, based in Milan and later Ravenna, and an Eastern Roman Empire, based in Nicomedia and later Constantinople, and it was ruled by multiple emperors.

Trajan Roman emperor from 98 to 117

Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117 . Officially declared by the Senate optimus princeps, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history, leading the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death. He is also known for his philanthropic rule, overseeing extensive public building programs and implementing social welfare policies, which earned him his enduring reputation as the second of the Five Good Emperors who presided over an era of peace and prosperity in the Mediterranean world.

Stable climate

Leopards on the Magerius Mosaic from modern Tunisia. Numerous Roman mosaics from North African sites depict fauna now found only in tropical Africa, although it's unclear whether any climate change contributed to that. Sousse museum Smirat-retouched.jpg
Leopards on the Magerius Mosaic from modern Tunisia. Numerous Roman mosaics from North African sites depict fauna now found only in tropical Africa, although it's unclear whether any climate change contributed to that.

Throughout the entire Roman Kingdom and the Republic there has been 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]

Roman Kingdom Romes political structure 753-509 BCE

The Roman Kingdom, also referred to as the Roman monarchy, or the regal period of ancient Rome, was the earliest period of Roman history, when the city and its territory were ruled by kings.

Roman Republic Period of ancient Roman civilization (509–27 BC)

The Roman Republic was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire. It was during this period that Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world.

Polis ancient Greek social and political organisation

Polis, plural poleis literally means city in Greek. It can also mean a body of citizens. In modern historiography, polis is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as "city-state". These cities consisted of a fortified city centre (asty) built on an acropolis or harbor and controlled surrounding territories of land (khôra).

At the same time there were a number of severe winters, including the complete freezing of the Tiber in 398 BC, 396 BC, 271 BC and 177 BC. [8] In subsequent centuries the reports of occasional harsh winters became associated with flooding rather than ice on the Tiber. [8] Evidence for a cooler Mediterranean climate in 600 BC–100 BC comes from remains of ancient harbors at Naples and in the Adriatic which are located about one meter below current water level. Edward Gibbon, citing ancient sources, thought that the Rhine and the Danube were frequently frozen, facilitating the invasion of barbarian armies into the Empire "over a vast and solid bridge of ice". [9] Suggesting colder climate, Gibbon also contended that during 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]

Tiber river in Italy

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometres (252 mi) through Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio, where it is joined by the river Aniene, to the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ostia and Fiumicino. It drains a basin estimated at 17,375 square kilometres (6,709 sq mi). The river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of the city of Rome, founded on its eastern banks.

Mediterranean climate climate zone

A Mediterranean climate or dry summer climate is characterized by rainy winters and dry summers, with less than 40 mm of precipitation for at least three summer months. While the climate receives its name from the Mediterranean Basin, these are generally located on the western coasts of continents, between roughly 30 and 43 degrees north and south of the equator, typically between oceanic climates towards the poles, and semi-arid and arid climates towards the equator.

Naples Comune in Campania, Italy

Naples is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy after Rome and Milan. In 2017, around 967,069 people lived within the city's administrative limits while its province-level municipality has a population of 3,115,320 residents. Its continuously built-up metropolitan area is the second or third largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the most densely populated cities in Europe.

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 far 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]

Augustus First emperor of the Roman Empire

Augustus was a Roman statesman and military leader who was the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, controlling Imperial Rome from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. His status as the founder of the Roman Principate has consolidated an enduring legacy as one of the most effective and controversial leaders in human history. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries, despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession.

Biotope An area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals

A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, which is more commonly used in English-speaking countries. However, in some countries these two terms are distinguished: the subject of a habitat is a population, the subject of a biotope is a biocoenosis or biological community.

<i>Heterogaster urticae</i> species of insect

Heterogaster urticae is a species of true bug in the family Heterogastridae. It is found in Africa and Europe & Northern Asia.

Winds

A comparison of modern wind roses with the situation in the 1st century AD shows some differences: in that time northern inflows in winter were quite rare. [11] The typical northwest winds which regularly blew in July are presently non-existent. [11] The sea breeze began a month earlier, in April. [11] Vitruvius mentioned moisture-carrying winds blowing from the south or west which could damage books. [11] There is also evidence indicating that in the Roman period Mediterranean climate was influenced by low frequency fluctuations in sea level pressure over the North Atlantic, called the Centennial North Atlantic Oscillation (CNAO). [12]

Wind rose

A wind rose is a graphic tool used by meteorologists to give a succinct view of how wind speed and direction are typically distributed at a particular location. Historically, wind roses were predecessors of the compass rose, as there was no differentiation between a cardinal direction and the wind which blew from such a direction. Using a polar coordinate system of gridding, the frequency of winds over a time period is plotted by wind direction, with color bands showing wind speed ranges. The direction of the longest spoke shows the wind direction with the greatest frequency.

Sea breeze Wind blowing from sea to land

A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes are more localised than prevailing winds. Because land absorbs solar radiation far more quickly than water, a sea breeze is a common occurrence along coasts after sunrise. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is the reverse effect: dry land also cools more quickly than water and, after sunset, a sea breeze dissipates and the wind instead flows from the land towards the sea. Sea breezes and land breezes are both important factors in coastal regions' prevailing winds. The term offshore wind may refer to any wind over open water.

Vitruvius Roman writer, architect and engineer

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, commonly known as Vitruvius, was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer and military engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled De architectura. His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the human body led to the famous Renaissance drawing by Leonardo da Vinci of Vitruvian Man.

Precipitation

During the Second Punic War, the Mediterranean coast saw such powerful storms, that the Roman fleet was destroyed twice (in 249 BC and 225 BC). [13] This was followed by drought in Italy in 226 BC, which lasted for six months. [13] In December 170 BC there was a blood rain in Rome. [13] Written sources from about 75 BC to c. 175 AD also emphasize moisture, mainly in the form of the Tiber floods in Rome. [3] Large Tiber floods occurred in 5 (lasted seven days), 15, 36, 51, 69, 79 and 97 AD. [13] Starting from 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. [16] In 134 BC the army of Scipio Aemilianus in Spain had to march at night due to extreme heat, when some of its horses and mules died of thirst [17] (even though earlier, in 181 BC, heavy spring rains prevented the Celtiberians from relieving the Roman siege of Contrebia). [17] Through the 2nd century AD warm temperatures dominated particularly in the 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 Sheldon Judson, in the 2nd century BC the rate of soil erosion in Latium increased ten times, which is associated with the increased number of settlements in south Etruria. [15] Additionally, from the 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 provinces of the Empire. [3] Dendrochronology indicates that severe drought which began in 338 and persisted until 377 forced the nomadic pastoral federation of Huns to seek pastures and predation farther to the west and south. [3] Their attacks north of the Black Sea drove the Goths to flee into the Roman Empire and ultimately to attack it (particularly in the Battle of Adrianople). [3] Increased climate variability from c. 250 to 600 coincided with the decline of the Western Roman Empire. [19] For the Eastern Roman Empire there is an evidence for a regional prolonged drought in modern central Turkey in c. 400–540 AD. [5]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Бокщанин А., Кузищин В. Глава вторая. Природа и население древней Италии. Природа Апеннинского полуострова в древности. История Древнего Рима (in Russian). Библиотека Гумер. Retrieved 25 Aug 2014.
  2. ↑ John E. Oliver, ed. (2005). The Encyclopedia of World Climatology. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 259. ISBN   1402032641.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Michael McCormick et al. (Autumn 2012). "Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence" (PDF). Journal of Interdisciplinary History . Retrieved 24 Aug 2014.
  4. 1 2 Behringer 2010 , p. 62
  5. 1 2 Harris 2013 , p. 161
  6. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 Behringer 2010 , p. 60
  8. 1 2 3 H. H. Lamb (2013). Climate: Present, Past and Future (Routledge Revivals): Volume 2: Climatic History and the Future. Routledge. p. 424. ISBN   1136639691.
  9. 1 2 T. M. L. Wigley, M. J. Ingram, G. Farmer, eds. (1985). Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and Their Impact on Man. CUP Archive. p. 381. ISBN   0521312205.
  10. ↑ Behringer 2010 , p. 61
  11. 1 2 3 4 Dario Camuffo (1993). "Reconstructing the climate and the air pollution of Rome during the life of the Trajan Column". The Science of the Total Environment. Retrieved 27 Aug 2014.
  12. ↑ B. J. Dermody et al. (2011). "Revisiting the humid Roman hypothesis: novel analyses depict oscillating patterns". Climate of the Past Discussions. 7: 2355–2389. doi:10.5194/cpd-7-2355-2011.
  13. 1 2 3 4 С. И. Бараш. "Глава I. История неурожаев и погоды в Европе в древности". История неурожаев и погоды в Европе (in Russian). Retrieved 26 Aug 2014.
  14. 1 2 Samuel K. Eddy (1979). "Climate in Greco-Roman History". surface.syr.edu. Syracuse University . Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  15. 1 2 3 Andrew Erskine, ed. (2012). A Companion to Ancient History. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   1118581539.
  16. ↑ Celia Martín-Puertas; et al. (March 2009). "The Iberian–Roman Humid Period (2600–1600 cal yr BP) in the Zoñar Lake varve record (Andalucía, southern Spain)". Quaternary Research . doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2008.10.004 . Retrieved 25 Aug 2014.
  17. 1 2 Leonard A Curchin (2004). The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland. Routledge. p. 7. ISBN   1134451121.
  18. ↑ Harris 2013 , p. 173
  19. ↑ Ulf Büntgen et al. (January 13, 2011). "2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility". Science . doi:10.1126/science.1197175 . Retrieved 25 Aug 2014.

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References

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