Did climate change cause a plague that devastated the Roman Empire under Justinian I? Image source: Volodymyr Vlasenko, via Wikimedia Commons.
Recent scientific research suggests that climate change may have been linked to mass outbreaks of disease in the ancient Roman world.
These finds come from an article published by Science Advances on 26 January.
Co-lead researcher Dr Karin Zonneveld, a paleoceanographer at the University of Bremen, spoke with Live Science about the study’s findings.
“The correlation between times when Europe was suffering under major outbreaks of infectious diseases corresponding to phases of cold climate was striking,” said Zonneveld.
“Investigating the resilience of ancient societies to past climate change… might give us better insight into these relationships and the climate change-induced challenges we are facing today,” said Zonneveld.
Zonneveld and her colleagues reconstructed the climate of southern Italy between 20BCE and 600CE by analysing single-celled algae.
These specimens were preserved in a sediment core extracted from the Gulf of Taranto.
Zonneveld’s model suggests that during the Roman Warm Period (between 200BCE and 100CE), temperatures in the region were warm and stable with regular rainfall.
As the climate grew colder and drier from 160CE onwards, pandemics began to spread throughout the Roman Empire.
Between 165CE and 180CE, the Antonine Plague spread across the empire from the provinces of Egypt to Britain.
Greek physician Galen wrote during the outbreak that the disease caused diarrhea, fever, and rashes over the entire body.
It was followed by the Plague of Cyprian in 250CE and the Justinian Plague in 541CE.
Average temperatures in the late 500s had dropped by around 3 degrees Celsius from those of the Roman Warm Period.
Co-lead researcher Dr Kyle Harper, a historian at the University of Oklahoma, spoke with the New Scientist about the study’s findings.
“There’s a series of episodes of very extreme crises,” said Harper, in reference to the Western Roman Empire’s waning power and eventual collapse.
“I think the case is now overwhelmingly clear that both climate change and pandemic disease had a role in many of those episodes.”
Though their research identifies a correlation between climate change and the waves of pandemic, it does not suggest a cause.
Zonneveld, Harper, and their colleagues’ study contributes to an increasing body of research on how climate change can affect human health.
