217. Plague and the decline of the Roman Empire

Tom and Dominic are joined by friend of the show Kyle Harper to discuss how pandemics and disease played a far greater role in the decline of the Roman Empire than previously understood.
On the show Kyle, Dominic, and Tom discuss life expectancy, how the Roman Empire was ‘bad for people’s health', the Antonine Plague, and more.
Listen to our previous episodes with Kyle:146. Disease vs. the rise of civilisation147. Disease, the New World and modern pandemics
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[@chrisS19019]

SO EXCITED. The most fun history podcast to listen to. The banter is unparalleled!

[@Psmith-ek5hq]

Tom is a star. And all thanks to Philomena Cunk.

[@andrewbuswell6010]

“As a result, much of what we think we know about ancient Rome’s statistical life expectancy comes from life expectancies in comparable societies. Those tell us that as many as one-third of infants died before the age of one, and half of children before age 10. After that age your chances got significantly better. If you made it to 60, you’d probably live to be 70. Taken altogether, life span in ancient Rome probably wasn’t much different from today. It may have been slightly less “because you don’t have this invasive medicine at end of life that prolongs life a little bit, but not dramatically different”, Scheidel says. “You can have extremely low average life expectancy, because of, say, pregnant women, and children who die, and still have people to live to 80 and 90 at the same time. They are just less numerous at the end of the day because all of this attrition kicks in.”There is a basic distinction between life expectancy and life span,” says Stanford University historian Walter Scheidel, a leading scholar of ancient Roman demography. “The life span of humans - opposed to life expectancy, which is a statistical construct - hasn’t really changed much at all, as far as I can tell.”

[@beback_]

Yes it's certainly not the case that people got "old" at 30

[@lakedistrict9450]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[@JMGerstman]

love Kyle's feature here, his work is incredibly interesting and he is a very well spoken guest with awesome takes so its quite refreshing to hear his voice again. Amazing pod guys:)

[@briangarrow448]

Fascinating subject. Great guest. Well done gentlemen.

[@cthornton523]

Dan Carlin brought me here. You are both delightful, as is Kyle. Such fun! Totally subbed.

[@edwardcarrington3531]

Fire pod boys

[@simonwells2213]

The plague explains a lot. Couple that with years such as 536 AD and you've got chaos and occupation.

[@michaelk19thcfan10]

A major trade route that opened up during the Pax Romana was the Indian Ocean trade. Not a coincidence pandemics started to break out in the Empire.

[@edwardcarrington3531]

Yall deserve more views

[@johngalt97]

Grain allows more humans to survive and procreate, but in poorer health. Look at the problem our overweight carbohydrate eating population had with COVID.

[@user-rg9yz5ou4y]

woo

[@user-rg9yz5ou4y]

plague

[@louisburke8927]

26:38 it was a famine full stop not a potato famine

[@NineteenEighty-Four]

Lots of porn bots live here lol

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True. Report button only works in large numbers

[@TheMightyMurse1917]

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