Ancient Rome Was Teetering. Then a Volcano Erupted 6,000 Miles Away

Interesting article in The New York Times.. here

 

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it's behind a paywall

 

Interesting.. it fully loads for me and I do not subscribe to the NY Times.
Perhaps I registered for free at some point?

 

you might get a certain number of articles free before it kicks in.

 

An interesting read, but very dubious to conclude that a volcanic eruption in the Aleutian Islands helped cause the fall of the Republic! The eruption may indeed have caused a temporary cooling of the climate (much like 1816's 'year without a summer') but certainly didn't last long enough to cause the major social upheavals outlined in the article.

In fact, the Mediterranean in general was experiencing a very stable period of warmer than normal climate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Warm_Period

 

Very interesting. I find it also interesting that certain parts of the world gets a focus on these natural events, while others are not mentioned.

I, personally think it is kinda a stretch that Roman Republic fell over a cold winter or two... The New York Times may be pushing the impact it a bit...

China was a major Empire and economic entity by this time:

Quick look at CHINESE HISTORY during that time period on Wikipedia, shows no real major effect for the Han Dynasty... However, I do not have detailed histories pertaining to this specific 43 BCE time period. Maybe there were no tipping points for this Empire at that time, and the event was just a cold Winter / bad harvest.

"The Han dynasty (Chinese: 漢朝; pinyin: Hàncháo) was the second imperial dynasty of China (206 BC–220 AD), preceded by the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered a golden age in Chinese history.[4] To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to themselves as the "Han Chinese" (Han Zu) and the Chinese script is referred to as "Han characters".[5] It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han, and briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods: the Western Han or Former Han (206 BC–9 AD) and the Eastern Han or Later Han (25–220 AD)."

HOLY COW: The West makes a big deal that Caesar changed the Calendar, using Egyptian help. But the Chinese were REALLY getting the calculations down pat:

Astronomy[edit]
Further information: Chinese astronomy
Mathematics were essential in drafting the astronomical calendar, a lunisolar calendar that used the Sun and Moon as time-markers throughout the year.[292] During the spring and autumn periods of the 5th century BC, the Chinese established the Sifen calendar (古四分历), which measured the tropical year at 3651⁄4 days. This was replaced in 104 BC with the Taichu calendar (太初曆) that measured the tropical year at 365385⁄1539 days and the lunar month at 2943⁄81 days.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty

 

Thanks for sharing the article. But I tend to put this in the "unlikely" category. It's like the theory that "Rome fell" because of lead pipes espoused on the History Channel. If that were so, what about the Eastern Empire?

 

" it was Okmok, a volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands,"

I am just so BUMMED that all the coins of the Aleutian Empire, spanning Eastern Asia and Western North America were lost... I think this is where Atlantis was...

 

I agree as well. But I did enjoy the read...

 

..kool read... i'd say it helped ..thanks @Clavdivs

 

I don’t buy it. The republic was certainly doomed by the 40’s BCE, volcano or not.