Droughts and conflicts during the late Roman period
Climatic Change 178, 87 (2025)
https://doi.org/10.1007/S10584-025-03925-4Abstract
Studie zu einer Interkonnektivität kriegerischer Auseinandersetzungen mit klimatischen Ereignis-sen. Datengrundlagen sind dendrochronologische Messungen in Korrelation zu überlieferten Kon-flikten im römischen Reich und an den Grenzen des Imperiums 364 bis 476 n. Chr. (https://www.academia.edu/101107871/Erhebungen_und_Emp%C3%B6rungen_Machtk%C3%A4mpfe_und_Krisenbew%C3%A4ltigung_im_sp%C3%A4tr%C3%B6mischen_Westen ).
References (77)
- Alexander LV, Jones PD (2000) Updated precipitation series for the UK and discussion of recent extremes. Atmospheric Sci Lett 1(2):142-150
- Allen M, Lodwick L, Brindle T, Fulford M, Smith A (2017) New visions of the countryside of Roman Britain volume 2: the rural economy of Roman Britain, vol 30. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Álvarez-Jiménez D (2013) Ammianus and theodosius I concerning the barbarica conspiratio in the theodosian age (A.D. 379-455). Power, place, belief and learning at the end of the Western empire. 2493:73-84
- Barker LJ, Hannaford J, Magee E, Turner S, Sefton C, Parry S, Evans J, Szczykulska M, Haxton T (2024) An Appraisal of the severity of the 2022 drought and its impacts. Weather Bartholomew P (1984) Fourth-Century Saxons. Britannia 15:169-185
- Black E (1987) The Roman villas of south-East England. BAR British Series 171
- Bland R (2018) Coin hoards and hoarding in Roman Britain AD 43-c.498. Spink, London Blockley RC (1980) The date of the Barbarian conspiracy. Britannia 11:223
- Blockley RC (1996) Ammianus Marcellinus and his classical background-changing perspectives. Int J Classical Tradition 2(4):455-466
- Bowles DC, Butler CD, Morisetti N (2015) Climate change, conflict and health. J R Soc Med 108(10):390-395
- Breckner M, Sunde U (2019) Temperature extremes, global warming, and armed conflict: new insights from high resolution data. World Dev 123:104624
- Briffa K, Wigley T (1985) Soil moisture reconstruction using tree-rings. 14:106-113
- Buhaug H (2015) Climate-conflict research: some reflections on the way forward. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Clim Change 6(3):269-275
- Büntgen U, Di Cosmo N (2016) Climatic and environmental aspects of the Mongol withdrawal from Hun- gary in 1242 CE. Nat Sci Rep 6:25606
- Büntgen U, Myglan VS, Charpentier Ljungqvist F, McCormick M, Di Cosmo N, Sigl M, Jungclaus J, Wagner S, Krusic PJ, Esper J, Kaplan JO, de Vaan MAC, Luterbacher J, Wacker L, Tegel W, Kirdyanov AV (2016) Cooling and societal change during the late antique little ice age from 536 to around 660 AD. Nat Geosci 9:231-236
- Büntgen U, Tegel W, Nicolussi K, McCormick M, Frank D, Trouet V, Kaplan JO, Herzig F, Heussner KU, Wanner H, Luterbacher J (2011) 2500 Years of European climate variability and human susceptibility. Science 331(6017):578-582
- Büntgen U, Arseneault D, Boucher É, Churakova OV, Gennaretti F, Crivellaro A, Hughes MK, Kirdyanov AV, Klippel L, Krusic PJ, Linderholm HW (2020) Prominent role of volcanism in common era climate variability and human history. Dendrochronologia (64):125757
- Büntgen U, Urban O, Krusic PJ, Rybníček M, Kolář T, Kyncl T, Ač A, Koňasová E, Čáslavský J, Esper J, Wagner S (2021) Recent European drought extremes beyond Common Era background variability. Nat Geosci 14(4):190-196
- Büntgen U, Reinig F, Verstege A, Piermattei A, Kunz M, Krusic P, Slavin P, Štěpánek P, Torbenson M, del Castillo EM, Arosio T (2024) Recent summer warming over the Western mediterranean region is unprecedented since medieval times. Glob Planet Change 232:104336
- Burke M, Hsiang SM, Miguel E (2015) Climate and conflict. Annual Rev Econ 7(1):577-617
- Burnham BC (2014) AD 410: the history and archaeology of late and Post-Roman Britain. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London
- Carter ES (1978) The effect of the drought on British agriculture. Proc Royal Soc Lond Math Phys Sci 363(1712):43-54
- Charman DJ (2010) Centennial climate variability in the British Isles during the mid-late holocene. Q Sci Rev 29(13-14):1539-1554
- Cook ER, Seager R, Kushnir Y, Briffa KR, Büntgen U, Frank D, Krusic PJ, Tegel W, van der Schrier G, Andreu-Hayles L, Baillie M (2015) Old world megadroughts and pluvials during the common era. Sci Adv 1(10):1500561
- Cooper RJ, Melvin TM, Tyers I, Wilson RJ, Briffa KR (2013) A tree-ring reconstruction of East Anglian (UK) hydroclimate variability over the last millennium. Clim Dyn 40:1019-1039
- Crawford P (2016) Constantius II: usurpers, eunuchs and the antichrist. Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley, South Yorkshire D'Angeli M, Marin G, Paglialunga E (2022) Climate change, armed conflicts and resilience (No. 0222). SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies
- Dark KR, Dark P (1998) The landscape of Roman Britain. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire Degroot D (2018) Climate change and society in the 15th to 18th centuries. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Clim Change 9(3):518
- De Juan A, Wegenast T (2020) Temperatures, food riots, and adaptation: A long-term historical analysis of England. J Peace Res 57(2):265-280
- De la Bédoyère G (2014) Roman Britain: a new history. Thames & Hudson.
- Déry CA (1996) Food and the Roman army: Travel, transport and transmission (with particular reference to the province of Britannia). In Food on the move: Proceedings of the Oxford symposium on food and cookery 84-96
- Erdkamp P (2005) The grain market in the Roman empire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Erdkamp P (2019) War, food, climate change, and the decline of the Roman empire. J Late Antiq 12(2):422-465
- Esper J, Büntgen U, Denzer S, Krusic PJ, Luterbacher J, Schäfer R, Schreg R, Werner J (2017) Environmen- tal drivers of historical grain price variations in Europe. Climate Res 72(1):39-52
- Faulkner N, Reece R (2002) The debate about the end: a review of evidence and methods. Archaeol J 159(1):59-76
- Finné M, Holmgren K, Sundqvist HS, Weiberg E, Lindblom M (2011) Climate in the Eastern mediterranean, and adjacent regions, during the past 6000 years-A review. J Archaeol Sci 38(12):3153-3173 (2025) 178:87
- Fleming R (2021) The material fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 CE. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Frend WH (1992) Pagans, Christians, and "The barbarian conspiracy" of a. d. 367 in Roman Britain. Britan- nia 23:121
- Gill RB, Mayewski PA, Nyberg J, Haug GH, Peterson LC (2007) Drought and the Maya collapse. Anc Mesoam 18(2):283-302
- Harper K (2016) The environmental fall of the Roman empire. Daedalus 145(2):101-111
- Higham N (2004) From sub-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: debating the insular dark ages. History Compass 2(1)
- Hind JG (1983) Who betrayed Britain to the barbarians in A.D. 367? North History 19(1):1-7
- Hsiang SM, Burke M, Miguel E (2013) Quantifying the influence of climate on human conflict. Science 341(6151):1235367
- Izdebski A, Pickett J, Roberts N, Waliszewski T (2016) The environmental, archaeological and historical evidence for regional Climatic changes and their societal impacts in the Eastern mediterranean in late antiquity. Q Sci Rev 15(136):189-208
- Jongman W, Jacobs J, Goldewijk G (2019) Health and wealth in the Roman empire. Econ Hum Biology 34:138-150
- Jun T, Sethi R (2021) Extreme weather events and military conflict over seven centuries in ancient Korea. Proc Nat Acad Sci 118(12):2021976118
- Kaldellis A (2024) The new Roman empire: A history of Byzantium. Oxford University Press Kelly G (2008) Ammianus Marcellinus: the allusive historian. Cambridge University Press Kendon M, Marsh T, Parry S (2013) The 2010-2012 drought in England and Wales. Weather 68(4):88-95
- Kennett DJ, Masson M, Lope CP, Serafin S, George RJ, Spencer TC, Hoggarth JA, Culleton BJ, Harper TK, Prufer KM, Milbrath S (2022) Drought-induced civil conflict among the ancient Maya. Nat Comm 13(1):3911
- Koubi V (2019) Climate change and conflict. Annu Rev Polit Sci 22(1):343-360
- Kushnir Y, Stein M (2019) Medieval climate in the Eastern mediterranean: instability and evidence of solar forcing. Atmosphere 10(1):29
- Lee JR (2018) Environment and conflict. Routledge handbook of environmental conflict and peacebuilding. Routledge, pp 17-28
- Lee HF, Qiang W (2023) Climatic extremes, violent conflicts, and population change in China in 1741-1910: an investigation using Spatial econometrics. Anthropocene 41:100372
- Lee HF, Zhang DD, Brecke P, Pei Q (2015) Regional geographic factors mediate the climate-war relationship in Europe. Br J Interdisciplinary Stud 2:1-28
- Lepetz S, Zech-Mattern (2018) Agro-pastoral systems during the Late Iron Age and Roman period in north- ern Gaul (English version) in: Michel Reddé (éd.), Gallia Rustica 2. Les campagnes du nord-est de la Gaule, de la fin de l'âge du Fer à l'Antiquité tardive, Ausonius, Collection Mémoires (50). Bordeaux 327-400
- Ljungqvist FC, Seim A, Huhtamaa H (2020) Climate and society in European history. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Clim Change 12(2):691
- Mach KJ, Kraan CM, Adger WN, Buhaug H, Burke M, Fearon JD, Field CB, Hendrix CS, Maystadt JF, O'Loughlin J, Roessler P (2019) Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict. Nature 571(7764):193-197
- Mach KJ, Adger WN, Buhaug H, Burke M, Fearon JD, Field CB, Hendrix CS, Kraan CM, Maystadt JF, O'Loughlin J, Roessler P (2020) Directions for research on climate and conflict. Earths Future 8(7):2020EF001532
- Mitchell S, Greatrex G (2023) A history of the later Roman Empire, AD 284-700. John Wiley & Sons Morris M (2021) Anglo-saxons: A history of the beginnings of England. Pegasus Books Murphy P, Albarella U, Germany M, Locker A (2000) Production, imports and status: biological remains from a Late Roman farm at Great Holts Farm, Boreham, Essex, UK. Environ Archaeol 5(1):35-48
- Pace E (2021) The long war for Britannia. Pen & Sword Military, Great Britain, pp 367-664
- Parker G (2013) Global crisis: war, climate change, & catastrophe in the seventeenth century. Yale University Press PAS (2023) Portable Antiquities Scheme. British Museum. https://finds.org.uk Potter TW, Johns C (1992) Roman Britain. University of California Press, Berkeley Pribyl K, England (2020) 1200-1700. Clim Past. 16(3):1027-1041
- Pribyl K, Nash DJ, Klein J, Endfield GH (2019) The role of drought in agrarian crisis and social change: the famine of the 1890s in south-eastern Africa. Reg Envriron Chang 19:2683-2695
- Rance P (2012) Epiphanius of Salamis and the Scotti: new evidence for late Roman-Irish relations. Britannia 43:227-242
- Rao MP, Cook ER, Cook BI, Anchukaitis KJ, D'Arrigo RD, Krusic PJ, LeGrande AN (2019) A double bootstrap approach to Superposed Epoch analysis to evaluate response uncertainty. Dendrochronologia 55:119-124 (2025) 178:87
- Salway P (2015) Roman Britain: a very short introduction. OUP Oxford Salzman MR (2021) The falls of Rome: crises, resilience, and resurgence in late antiquity. Cambridge Uni- versity Press, Cambridge
- Schmidt-Hofner S (2017) Barbarian migrations and Socio-economic challenges to the Roman landholding elite in the fourth century CE. J Late Antiq 10(2):372-404
- Schwinden L (2022) Erhebungen und Empörungen -Machtkämpfe und Krisenbewältigung im spätrömischen Westen, in Schriftenreihe des Rheinischen Landesmuseums Trier. Nr. 44, Begleitband zur Ausstellung Der Untergang Des Römischen Reiches
- Sitko R, Vido J, Jaroslav S, Pichler V, Scheer Ĺ, Škvareninová J, Paulína N (2016) Effect of various climate databases on the results of dendroclimatic analysis. Earth Sys Dyn 7(2):385-395
- Slavin P (2016) Climate and famines: A historical reassessment. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Clim Change 7(3):433-447
- Southern P (2004) The army in late Roman Britain, in A companion to Roman Britain. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, New Jersey
- Taheri S (2011) Effects of drought stress condition on the yield of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) lines. Afr J Biotechnol 10(80)
- Thompson EA (1952) A Roman reformer and inventor: being a new text of the treatise de rebus Bellicis. Clarendon, Oxford
- Todd M (2003) A companion to Roman Britain. Blackwell publishing Ltd. xii-xiv Tol RS, Wagner S (2010) Climate change and violent conflict in Europe over the last millennium. Clim Change 99:65-79
- Touchan R, Meko DM, Anchukaitis KJ (2014) Dendroclimatology in the eastern mediterranean radiocarbon. 56(04):61-S68
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (2024) Historic drought inventory explorer. Retrieved 01/12/2024 from h t t p s : / / e i p . c e h . a c . u k / h y d r o l o g y / d r o u g h t -i n v e n t o r y / Van der Schrier G, Barichivich J, Briffa KR, Jones PD (2013) A scPDSI-based global data set of dry and wet spells for 1901-2009. J Geophys Research: Atmos 118(10):4025-4048
- Van der Schrier G, Allan RP, Ossó A, Sousa PM, Van de Vyver H, Van Schaeybroeck B, Coscarelli R, Pasqua AA, Petrucci O, Curley M, Mietus M (2021) The 1921 European drought: impacts, reconstruction and drivers. Clim Past 17(5):2201-2221
- Vivekananda J, Schilling J, Smith D (2014) Climate resilience in fragile and conflict-affected societies: con- cepts and approaches. Dev Pract 24(4):487-501
- Wacher J (2017) The towns of Roman Britain. Routledge, London
- Warde P (2015) Global crisis or global coincidence? Past Present 228(1):287-301
- Ward-Perkins B (2005) The fall of Rome: and the end of civilization. Oxford University Press, Oxford Weisweiler J (2014) 7 Unreliable witness: failings of the narrative in Ammianus Marcellinus. In Literature and society in the fourth century AD. Brill, pp 103-133
- White RH (2009) A late Roman military command in Britain reinstated. In Roman frontier studies 2009. Proceedings of the XXI international congress of Roman frontier studies (Limes Congress) held at Newcastle upon Tyne in August, pp 336-341
- Wilson R, Miles D, Loader NJ, Melvin T, Cunningham L, Cooper R, Briffa K (2013) A millennial long March-July precipitation reconstruction for southern-central England. Clim Dyn 40:997-1017
- Wood CE (2011) Mud: A military history. Potomac Books, Inc Zhang DD, Jim CY, Lin GC, He YQ, Wang JJ, Lee HF (2006) Climatic change, wars and dynastic cycles in China over the last millennium. Clim Change 76:459-477
- Zonneveld KA, Harper K, Klügel A, Chen L, De Lange G, Versteegh GJ (2024) Climate change, society, and pandemic disease in Roman Italy between 200 BCE and 600 CE. Scie Adv 10(4):1033