Roman Population Size: The Logic of the Debate

Scheidel, Walter

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1096415

Cited by 54 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…It is all the more important that the data used in this analysis probably lead to an underestimation of the role of material prosperity. First, we used a very crude measure of urbanization (size of the main city) that greatly underestimates the astonishing rates of urbanization of Greece, China, and India during the Axial Age [25,26]. Second, absolute energy capture does not take into account the distribution of resources within a given society (e.g., the Gini index).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions

et al. 2015

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We discussed several possible causal pathways, including the development of literacy and urban life, and put forward the idea, inspired by life history theory, that absolute affluence would have impacted human motivation and reward systems, nudging people away from short-term strategies (resource acquisition and coercive interactions) and promoting long-term strategies (self-control techniques and cooperative interactions).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions

et al. 2015

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“…However, the population size of the Roman Empire is still debatable since there is disagreement what the census tallies represent. The number of HYDE11 lies in the range of the so-called "low count" scenario (Scheidel, 2008), but there are also proponents of a "middle count" and a "high count" hypothesis (Hin, 2013;Scheidel, 2008).…”

Section: Population Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

“…would result in a roughly 3 times larger population size, i.e. more than 100 million people (maybe up to 160 million) living in the whole Empire if we assume that the population densities in other parts of the Empire were similar to Italy (Scheidel, 2008(Scheidel, , 2009 Based on these different literature values, we used the estimate from HYDE11 for our low emission scenario. For the intermediate and the high emission scenarios, we decided to multiply the population densities of the HYDE database with factors of 1.5 and 2.5, respectively.…”

Section: Population Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Did the Roman Empire affect European climate? A new look at the effects of land use and anthropogenic aerosol emissions

Gilgen

Wilkenskjeld

Kaplan

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. As one of the first transcontinental polities that led to widespread anthropogenic modification of the environment, the influence of the Roman Empire on European climate has been studied for more than 20 years. Recent advances in our understanding of past land use and aerosol-climate interactions make it valuable to revisit the way humans may have affected the climate of the Roman Era. Here we drive the global aerosol-enabled climate model ECHAM-HAM-SALSA with land use maps and novel estimates of anthropogenic aerosol emissions from the Roman Empire at its apogee to quantify the effect of humans on regional climate. In a factorial study, we used the HYDE and KK11 anthropogenic land cover change scenarios with three estimates (low, medium, high) of aerosol emissions from fuel combustion and burning of agricultural land. Land use effects on climate varied from no influence using the HYDE scenario to a significant warming over land of 0.15 K with KK11 relative to a no-land use control. This warming is primarily caused by regional decreases in turbulent fluxes, in contrast to previous studies that emphasised changes in albedo and evapotranspiration. Aerosol emissions from agricultural burning were greater than those from fuel consumption, but on the same order of magnitude. All emissions scenarios result in an enhanced cooling effect of clouds over a no-emissions control scenario. As a consequence, the land surface temperature averaged over our entire study domain decreased significantly by 0.17 K, 0.23 K, and 0.46 K for the low, the intermediate, and the high emissions scenarios, respectively. Cooling caused by aerosol emissions is largest over Central and Eastern Europe, while warming caused by land use occurs in parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Our results suggest that the influence of Roman Era anthropogenic aerosol emissions on European climate may have been as important as that of deforestation and other forms of land use. Our model may overestimate aerosol-effective radiative forcing, however, and our results are very sensitive to the inferred seasonal timing of agricultural burning practices and natural aerosol emissions over land (wildfire emissions and biogenic emissions). Nevertheless, it is likely that human influence on land and the atmosphere affected continental-scale climate during Classical Antiquity.

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“…For discussion of the figures see also Magie (1950, 216) (Prosdocimi 1988, 288-92), and in the funerary sphere, stelai exhibit Celtic motifs in the iconography (Fogolari 1988, 102-3 Scheidel (2006, 209). Most recently, however, Scheidel (2008) has expressed reservations about the low population count, and has now moved toward a middle ground. The high count of fourteen to twenty million, he still sees as extremely flawed, and more so than the low count.…”

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confidence: 99%

Polybius’s global moment and human mobility through ancient Italy

Isayev¹

2014

Globalisation and the Roman World

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World history, connectivity and material cultureThis book explores a new perspective for understanding the Roman world, using connectivity as a major point of departure. Globalisation is apparent in increased flows of objects, people and ideas, and in the creation of translocal consciousness in everyday life. Based on these criteria, there is a case for globalisation in the ancient Roman world. Essential for anyone interested in Romanisation, this volume provides the first sustained critical exploration of globalisation theories in Roman archaeology and history. It is written by an international group of scholars who address a broad range of subjects, including Roman imperialism, economics, consumption, urbanism, migration, visual culture and heritage. The contributors explore the implications of understanding material culture in an interconnected Roman world, highlighting several novel directions for future research.Martin Pitts is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter. Specialising in the quantitative analysis of consumption patterns, his research addresses the origins of mass consumption and the role of artefacts in large-scale historical processes and how such processes impacted on local cultural practices. Although his focus is on the northwestern Roman Empire, he has also published on consumption in the seventeenth, eighteenth and twentieth centuries. He is co-author, with Dominic Perring, of Alien Cities: Consumption and the Origins of Urbanism in Roman Britain. He has published articles in the American Journal of Archaeology, the European Journal of Archaeology, the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Britannia and the Journal of WorldSystems Research. Miguel John Versluys is Associate Professor of Classical and MediterraneanArchaeology at the University of Leiden. In 2010, he obtained a VIDI grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research to build his own research group, Cultural Innovation in a Globalising Society: Egypt in the Roman World. In 2011, he was a guest professor at Université de Toulouse II -Le Mirail. In 2013, he received the Zenobia Essay Prize. His main research interest is cultural interaction in the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean. He has published many articles in international journals and is the author of several books, including Egyptian Gods in the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean: Image and Reality Between Local and Global (2012).C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP-NEW/4996549/WORKINGFOLDER/PITTS/9781107043749HTL.3D ii [1][2] 7.5.2014 4:14PM C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP-NEW/4996549/WORKINGFOLDER/PITTS/9781107043749TTL.3D iii 7.5.2014 4:25PM Globalisation and the Roman WorldWorld history, connectivity and material culture Martin Pitts University of Exeter Miguel John VersluysUniversity of Leiden C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP-NEW/4999207/WORKINGFOLDER/PITTS/9781107043749IMP.3D iv [4-4] 8.5.2014 8:28AM 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, usaCambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.It furthers the ...

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Roman Population Size: The Logic of the Debate

Cited by 54 publications

References 37 publications

Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions

Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions

Did the Roman Empire affect European climate? A new look at the effects of land use and anthropogenic aerosol emissions

Polybius’s global moment and human mobility through ancient Italy

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