New Rome the empire in the east
"In New Rome, Paul Stephenson looks beyond traditional texts and well-known artifacts to offer a novel, scientifically-minded interpretation of antiquity's end. It turns out that the descent of Rome is inscribed not only in parchments but also in ice cores and DNA. From these and other sou...
| Main Author: | Stephenson, Paul (Author) |
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge, Massachusetts :
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2022.
|
| Edition: | First Harvard University Press edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: |
"In New Rome, Paul Stephenson looks beyond traditional texts and well-known artifacts to offer a novel, scientifically-minded interpretation of antiquity's end. It turns out that the descent of Rome is inscribed not only in parchments but also in ice cores and DNA. From these and other sources, we learn that pollution and pandemics influenced the fate of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire. During its final five centuries, the empire in the east survived devastation by natural disasters, the degradation of the human environment, and pathogens previously unknown to the empire's densely populated, unsanitary cities. Despite the Plague of Justinian, regular "barbarian" invasions, a war with Persia, and the rise of Islam, the empire endured as a political entity. However, Greco-Roman civilization, a world of interconnected cities that had shared a common material culture for a millennium, did not" -- |
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| Physical Description: |
xii, 432 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780674659629 0674659627 |