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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jimski, post: 3387400, member: 77373&quot;]Here is a reference to famine in Rome from smithsonianmag.com.</p><p><br /></p><p><i><b>Climate and the Fall of the Roman Empire</b></i></p><p><i>Even in our modern age, humans are incredibly vulnerable to changes in weather and climate. And earlier in human history, we were even more so. Even the Romans, who managed to build <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Secrets-of-the-Colosseum.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Secrets-of-the-Colosseum.html" rel="nofollow">monuments</a>, roads and aqueducts that still stand today, weren&#039;t immune, according to a new study <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/12/science.1197175" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/12/science.1197175" rel="nofollow">published last week by Science</a>.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Scientists in Germany and Switzerland created a 2,500-year-long record of Central European summer precipitation and temperature variability from nearly 9,000 samples of larch, pine and oak tree rings.They found that the region experienced above average precipitation and little temperature fluctuation up until about A.D. 250, with a couple of colder periods around 350 B.C.—when the Celtic peoples began to expand across the continent—and 50 B.C., which was when the Romans were conquering Britain.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><u>But around A.D. 250 began a 300-year period of extreme climate variability, when there were wild shifts in precipitation and temperature from one decade to the next.</u> The Romans didn&#039;t fare so well. The Roman Empire nearly fell during the Crisis of the Third Century and split into two in 285. In 387, the Gauls sacked Rome, followed by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455. By 500, the western Roman Empire was gone.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Read more: <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/climate-and-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-42171285/#lVlVV5EmhziPqIzr.99" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/climate-and-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-42171285/#lVlVV5EmhziPqIzr.99" rel="nofollow">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/climate-and-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-42171285/#lVlVV5EmhziPqIzr.99</a></p><p>Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! <a href="http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv</a></p><p>Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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