Professor Kyle Harper

And whatever caused it, it was highly alarming to people all over the empire who describe significant mortality. And this is a society where they're used to a lot of people dying. And this stands out somehow to their experience, to their background. So simultaneously... You've got the human things going on.

So you have tribes across the Rhine and Danube that seem to be sort of coalescing into bigger confederations that are more capable of confronting the Roman frontier defenses in an organized and dangerous way if you're a Roman. That is, of course, going to put pressure throughout the system because the Roman frontier system isn't designed as a wall. It's designed as a kind of...

So you have tribes across the Rhine and Danube that seem to be sort of coalescing into bigger confederations that are more capable of confronting the Roman frontier defenses in an organized and dangerous way if you're a Roman. That is, of course, going to put pressure throughout the system because the Roman frontier system isn't designed as a wall. It's designed as a kind of...

So you have tribes across the Rhine and Danube that seem to be sort of coalescing into bigger confederations that are more capable of confronting the Roman frontier defenses in an organized and dangerous way if you're a Roman. That is, of course, going to put pressure throughout the system because the Roman frontier system isn't designed as a wall. It's designed as a kind of...

hegemonic zone where the Romans can optimize the threat of what's really not a huge, huge army relative to the territory size. Soldiers are expensive. Somebody's got to pay for them. Somebody is provincial farmers. So if you've got more geopolitical pressure, you need more troops. And if you need more troops, you're going to have to recruit them from farms. You're going to have to pay them more.

hegemonic zone where the Romans can optimize the threat of what's really not a huge, huge army relative to the territory size. Soldiers are expensive. Somebody's got to pay for them. Somebody is provincial farmers. So if you've got more geopolitical pressure, you need more troops. And if you need more troops, you're going to have to recruit them from farms. You're going to have to pay them more.

hegemonic zone where the Romans can optimize the threat of what's really not a huge, huge army relative to the territory size. Soldiers are expensive. Somebody's got to pay for them. Somebody is provincial farmers. So if you've got more geopolitical pressure, you need more troops. And if you need more troops, you're going to have to recruit them from farms. You're going to have to pay them more.

And that certainly is what happens in the second half of the second century is they have to pay the army more. They have to raise taxes to do it. So these human factors start to reverberate throughout the system. But now we see that's not all that's going on. So while they're struggling and

And that certainly is what happens in the second half of the second century is they have to pay the army more. They have to raise taxes to do it. So these human factors start to reverberate throughout the system. But now we see that's not all that's going on. So while they're struggling and

And that certainly is what happens in the second half of the second century is they have to pay the army more. They have to raise taxes to do it. So these human factors start to reverberate throughout the system. But now we see that's not all that's going on. So while they're struggling and

as a system to maintain the dominance that they have, as the price of that goes up, as that's felt on the ground by taxpayers and farmers, at the same time, you have a disease that's killing more people and you have a climate that's making it harder to grow wheat. And it's the concatenation of those factors that makes the second century different.

as a system to maintain the dominance that they have, as the price of that goes up, as that's felt on the ground by taxpayers and farmers, at the same time, you have a disease that's killing more people and you have a climate that's making it harder to grow wheat. And it's the concatenation of those factors that makes the second century different.

as a system to maintain the dominance that they have, as the price of that goes up, as that's felt on the ground by taxpayers and farmers, at the same time, you have a disease that's killing more people and you have a climate that's making it harder to grow wheat. And it's the concatenation of those factors that makes the second century different.

There'd been dynastic upheaval, civil war before, but now you have it in a context where you have all of these pressures at the same time.

There'd been dynastic upheaval, civil war before, but now you have it in a context where you have all of these pressures at the same time.

There'd been dynastic upheaval, civil war before, but now you have it in a context where you have all of these pressures at the same time.

This is a really interesting and still a little bit open question. We're always interested in where do pandemics come from? We've seen in our own worlds how political and tricky those kinds of questions can be. And it's really not so different. The Romans are curious, where does this

This is a really interesting and still a little bit open question. We're always interested in where do pandemics come from? We've seen in our own worlds how political and tricky those kinds of questions can be. And it's really not so different. The Romans are curious, where does this

This is a really interesting and still a little bit open question. We're always interested in where do pandemics come from? We've seen in our own worlds how political and tricky those kinds of questions can be. And it's really not so different. The Romans are curious, where does this

come from they they tend to perceive disease through different lenses often at the same time religiously so pestilence is sent by the gods usually by the god Apollo and he's mad because the Romans aren't