Review of The Science of Roman History: Biology, Climate and the Future of the Past, ed. Walter Scheidel, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford 2018
Contents
Introduction
1
Walter Scheidel
Chapter 1. Reconstructing the Roman Climate
11
Kyle Harper & Michael McCormick
Chapter 2. Archeobotany: The Archeology of Human- Plant Interactions
53
Marijke van der Veen
Chapter 3. Zooarcheology: Reconstructing the Natural and Cultural Worlds from Archeological Faunal Remains
95
Michael MacKinnon
Chapter 4. Bones, Teeth, and History
123
Alessandra Sperduti, Luca Bondioli, Oliver E. Craig, Tracy Prowse, & Peter Garnsey
Chapter 5. Human Growth and Stature
174
Rebecca Gowland & Lauren Walther
Chapter 6. Ancient DNA
205
Noreen Tuross & Michael G. Campana
Chapter 7. Modern DNA and the Ancient Mediterranean
224
Roy J. King & Peter A. Underhill
Review for classicists © James Jope
(This review is followed by M. Eleanor Irwin's paper on the olive as an index of climate change.)
Perhaps the two most familiar achievements applying recent scientific
methods in classical studies are the use of tools like infrared light to
render damaged papyrus legible to reveal new ancient texts, and the
climatological explanation of strange reports of a cold, sunless summer
leading to crop failures in late antiquity.
The anthology reviewed here surveys scientific methods which may
revolutionize classical history in the future. The cover design
juxtaposes an Ionic column with the helical structure of DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid, or genes). The keynote chapter concerns climate
change, with others on paleobotany, new techniques to analyze bones and
teeth, and DNA. The papyrological advances are not included, although
the introduction alludes to them. Their absence reflects the character
of this anthology. Most of the contributors are scientists and/or
archeologists who are distinguished in their own fields but apparently
have little first-hand knowledge of the classical corpus (Scheidel and
Garnsey are notable exceptions), and many of the examples discussed
relate to prehistoric times or regions outside the Roman Empire. There
are also ‘how to’ instructions for applying the methods, which will
mainly interest archeologists. But the purpose of the book is to foster
awareness of the future importance of these sciences for Roman history.
As the authors too concede, this will not be only a bilateral project
between archeology and the sciences, it will require multidisciplinary
collaboration involving traditional studies of written sources as well.
In some cases, however, it will be the responsibility of this reviewer,
and of the reader, to indicate the relevance of classical scholarship.
The editor, in his introduction, points to the role of traditional
scholarship: “while the temporal association between trends in
macro-social development and climatic conditions is increasingly well
documented, the complexity of causal relations remains very much in need
of detailed analysis …we must ask not only how Roman society was
affected by environmental forces but also how it responded”. Yet his
greater enthusiasm for science is betrayed when, after enumerating what
science can tell from bones—the sex, age, diet, diseases, and cause of
death of an individual—he exclaims, “Never before has it been possible
to examine individual Roman lives in such detail.” So much for ancient
biographers!
Chapter 1: climate change
In 536 CE written sources reported a year without summer, with cold
temperatures and veiled sunlight. We now know that this was caused by a
series of volcanic eruptions. The airborne ashes which blocked the
sunlight also dropped sulfate deposits. The nascent science of
paleoclimatology has recovered these deposits from chronologically
graded ice cores in Greenland to trace the eruptions. Ice cores, tree
rings, glacial advances and recessions, sedimentary layers in lakes and
caves all provide ‘proxy’ evidence of past climate changes. Even
variations of solar activity (sun spots) can be traced by the
radionuclide isotopes which they leave in ice cores and tree rings.
Proxy findings are used to build overall climate patterns for the
present geological epoch (Holocene). They show a period of comparatively
stable warmth and moisture in the Mediterranean from approximately 200
BCE to 150 CE, known as the Roman Warm Period or Roman Climate Optimum,
which favored the growth of the empire. Also local variations are
attested: Egypt, for example, was affected more by the climate factors
of the Indian Ocean than was the Mediterranean, so that its reliability
as the imperial granary diminished after 156 CE.
Links with specific historical events are still speculative. The Huns
who pushed the Goths into the empire may have been prodded by a drought
in Central Asia. The science is young and there are many gaps, and
comparative studies of archeological and written evidence will have to
connect the dots. The authors do not seem to have much confidence in new
insights from classical sources: They compare the “large and growing”
archeological and paleoclimatological evidence with a “nearly static set
of written records” (39).
Chapter 2: archeobotany
New methods have also influenced archeobotany. Isotopes (variants of
biologically active elements like oxygen, nitrogen, or carbon), DNA, and
scanning electron microsopy (more powerful than visible microscopy) are
used to investigate carbonized, waterlogged, desiccated or mineralized
plant remains. Exotic arable weeds attest to long-distance trade, and
recovered plant species indicate a general improvement and variation of
diet in the Roman period in both Egypt and Britain-- and not only for
the elite. Pears, plums, cherries, walnuts, cabbage, leaf beets, even
apples were introduced into Britain by the Romans.
Although the only mention of ancient agricultural writings here is a
warning to read them “in their temporal, cultural, and regional
contexts, rather than as reliable guides to agriculture across the
entire Greco-Roman world” (60), the author reports that the philosophy
of paleobotanists has shifted from a deterministic view in which plant
and soil properties shape human developments to a more sociocultural
view in which both plants and people have agency. Thus, the potencies of
spice plants coupled with the demand for luxury promoted long-distance
trade. With this philosophy, the door is wide open for fresh
investigations of ancient texts.
Chapter 3: faunal remains
This chapter suggests “new directions” for zooarcheology, although some
of them simply extend methods used previously on human remains.
Isotopes, dental wear, and DNA differentiate goats and sheep and their
varieties, as well as their diet, which could reveal new evidence on,
e.g., the extent of transhumance (seasonal moving of livestock to
different pastures) in the classical world.
The author warns against archeologists becoming too obsessed with
scientific techniques, which he calls ‘processual’. ‘Postprocessual’
work includes scholarship. Some archeologists’ distaste for ‘theory’, he
argues, is wrong because their own practice implies theoretical
presuppositions. Questions of ethnic groups, social classes, etc. cannot
be answered by scientific techniques. (114)
Chapters 4-5: bones and teeth, growth and stature
This section details anthropological methods working especially with
bones and teeth, but it again sounds a note of caution by calling
attention to conflicts and errors within anthropology related to these
methods. Radiology, microscopy, isotopes, measurements and computerized
multivariate statistical analyses can reveal sex, age at death,
diseases, diet, etc. However, the ‘markers’ on bone used to trace
certain diseases can be left by more than one disease. The criteria used
to determine age at death, and stature have not been standardized.
Thus, historians have inferred high stature for Romans—implying good
health and diet-- based on findings which are disputed among
anthropologists themselves. Growth estimates can be improved by focusing
on infants; stature estimates by preferring full skeletal measurements
over calculations from measurements of long bones. Nevertheless, the
future of this science should go beyond identifying features of
individuals and reconstruct general population traits.
Again in Chapter 4, the authors call for balancing scientific and
traditional methods. For example, because oxygen isotopes depend on
local weather, they can signal migration. But to investigate why people
migrated, historical and literary evidence must be consulted.
Chapters 6-7: DNA ancient and modern
Starting from modern DNA, mutations (genetic changes) can be traced and
mapped with ‘molecular clocks’ to reconstruct human phylogenies (lines
of descent). Ancient DNA is usually damaged and fragmented, but can
still identify pathogens and human subgroups.
Tracing phylogeny is complicated by the circumstance that in every
generation, the genetic materials from the two parents undergo
‘recombination’; i.e., they are paired in a way which produces a unique
set of individual traits. Two types of DNA do not recombine:
Mitochondrial DNA, which is located apart from the ‘chromosomes’
carrying the genes (and actually originated from external organisms
which were incorporated by the cells of our ancestor species), is passed
down only through the maternal line. And the Y (male sex) chromosome is
inherited paternally. Chapter 7 uses Y chromosomes to construct a
phylogeny of mankind which is consistent, e.g., with what we know about
Neanderthals.
Both types of DNA can be processed more cheaply and quickly now that the
initial method used in the 1990s (polymerase chain reaction) has been
succeeded by ‘whole-genome sequencing’. Hence we can expect this science
to expand.
Specific findings noted by the authors are interesting in relation to
possibilities of philological study which remain unnoticed by the
authors. Comparison of modern Tuscan and ancient Etruscan genes shows
that they are not related, and that the Etruscans were more closely
related to Near Eastern peoples. The authors call for further genetic
research, but do not mention the obvious path of correlating this
finding with the Near Eastern affinities suggested by linguists. Horses
grew in size during the Empire, but the genetic evidence does not
resolve whether this was achieved through breeding, nurture, or imports;
the authors call for more sequencing, but do not discuss any breeding
data from ancient agricultural texts. If there are none, the argument
ex silentio would still be relevant.
Some classicists may find this book a difficult read. The explanatory prose can be opaque, as in
“leveraging the hierarchy of time-calibrated nested modern haplogroups
and glimpses of ancient uniparental and autosomal DNA” (238)
or
“This predisposition with respect to the lack of random mating creates
subdivision such that metapopulations comprised of various
subpopulations often get established” (226)
…where ‘metapopulations’ is not defined. Neither are ‘eukaryote’,
‘allele’ and occasional other terms. Nevertheless, I recommend this book
because its content may be critical for twenty-first century
scholarship.
I have posted below, with the author’s permission, an exemplary
illustration of what a classicist can contribute. This paper by M.
Eleanor Irwin was prepared for the 2018 annual meeting of the Classical
Association of Canada. The full text appears here for the first time.
Notice how it discusses the Roman writers “in their temporal, cultural,
and regional contexts, rather than as reliable guides to agriculture
across the entire Greco-Roman world” and “not only how Roman society was
affected by environmental forces but also how it responded”.
© M. Eleanor Irwin
submitted to the 2018 annual meeting of the Classical Association of Canada
Introduction: the Roman Warm period
We
are very much aware of climate change and its effect on us but we may
not realize that there were periods of climate change in the past, one
of which has a potential interest for Classicists. It is generally
agreed by climate scientists that between about 100 BCE and 200 CE there
was a period of relatively higher temperatures, first named “the Roman
Warm Period” in a 1995 University of Michigan dissertation by W.P.
Patterson, also known as the Roman Optimum Period. Climatologists have
raised the possibility of a causal connection between this stable
climate, the rise of the Roman empire and in particular the period of
peace and stability in the 2nd century CE. In this paper I will be
looking for awareness of climate change in the agricultural writing of
Varro, Vergil, Pliny and Columella during the Roman Warm period and
comparing what Cato wrote before and Palladius after this period.
A
good place for a Classicist to begin is with Neumann’s 1985 article
which surveys climate change in the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age
and assembles supporting evidence in Classical authors (mostly Greek)
for changes in temperature and rainfall levels. For a survey of climate
change in the Roman empire from 100 BCE to 600 CE I recommend the 2012
article by McCormick et al. “Climate Change during and after the Roman
Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical
Evidence.” This article is a good introduction to the ways
climatologists measure climate variations:
Greenland ice cores, fluctuations in solar radiation, speleothems
[stalactites and stalagmites] from Austria and Turkey, tree-ring series
from central Europe and Asia, Austrian and other Alpine glacier
movements, varve records [sediment layers] from European and western
Asian lakes, and written and archeological records.
Roman agricultural writers
The
Romans were interested in farming and recording methods of getting the
best results. I will be drawing material from six Roman agriculture
writers: Cato the Elder
De agricultura, Varro
Res Rusticae, Vergil
Georgics, Columella
Res rustica, Pliny the Elder
Naturalis Historia and Palladius
Opus agriculturae.
Cato lived (234 – 149 BCE) before the beginning of the warm period.
Varro, Vergil, Pliny and Columella were active during the Roman Warm
Period: Varro (116-27 BCE) and Vergil (70-19 BCE) in the last century
BCE and Pliny (23-79 CE) and Columella (an older contemporary of
Pliny’s, White 1970, 36). Palladius lived much later, probably in the
fourth century CE. All were land owners and all but Pliny had
considerable first-hand experience in farming. In addition to these
works which survive, there were many others now lost, of which I will
mention two: Saserna, the name of a father and son writing after Cato
and before Varro, used as a source by Varro and Columella (White 1970,
20), and the Carthaginian Mago whose work in Punic was translated into
Greek and Latin after the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE (White
1970, 17-8).
Mediterranean climate and the olive
Much
of Italy, especially the west coast between the sea and the Apennine
mountains, has a Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers and mild wet
winters. Other areas in the Mediterranean with this climate are the
southern part of Spain, the coast of France bordering the Mediterranean,
Greece, the Aegean and Mediterranean coast of Turkey, the coast of
Syria, Lebanon and Israel and in Africa the coast of Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia and a small part of Libya. Crops grown in a Mediterranean
climate include such fruit as grapes, figs and pomegranates and, most
characteristic of all, olives (
Olea europaea). Olives were an
important crop in Greece from the Bronze Age and were well established
in south Italy and Sicily by the eighth century BCE (Boardman 1976).
The
ancients recognized nearness to the sea as important for growing
olives. Theophrastus (HP 6.2.4) noted that the olive flourished no
further than 300 stades from the sea (about 54 kilometres) and if it was
found further inland – he specifies “more than five days' journey from
the sea” - they were unfruitful (HP 4.4.1,5). The ancestor of these
olive trees was the wild olive native to the Mediterranean, thought to
have been domesticated first in the Levant with a possible second
location for domestication in Spain (Zohary et al. 2012, 119, 121). The
wild olive was distinguished from its domesticated relative in the way
it reproduced. The wild olive grows by sexual reproduction from seed,
the domesticated olive by vegetative reproduction, with new plants
established from suckers or cuttings, often grafted on to wild olives
(Zohary et al. 2012, 117). Theophrastus was not sure whether a wild
olive could be tamed or a domesticated olive could turn wild; if it
happened, it was uncommon (HP 2.2.12; 2.3.1).
It
is widely held that the domesticated olive was introduced to Italy and
Sicily by Greek and Phoenician colonists from the second half of the
eighth century. The colonists looked for sites with fertile fields where
they could plant crops to feed themselves, the three most important
crops being grain, grapevines and olive trees (Dunbabin 1948). The
success of oleiculture in Sicily and south Italy is evident from
exports. Diodorus (13.81.4) recorded that Akragas in Sicily was
exporting olive oil to Carthage before the war with Hannibal and the
Athenian poet Amphis was acquainted with the olive oil of Thuria (in
Athenaeus 30b, 67b). Italian farmers were growing olives as a cash crop
from the mid 3rd century BCE. Pliny (HN 15. 1-3) measured olive
production by contrasting prices in 249 BCE (10 asses for 12 pounds)
with prices in 74 BCE (one as for 10 pounds). He also noted that olive
oil was exported to the provinces 22 years later in 52 BCE, an
indication that more olive oil was produced than could be used
domestically.
The olive does not demand much work to grow as Vergil said, even if he was exaggerating (
G.
2.420). The trees need good drainage and will not do well in swampy
land. They were often planted on a slope, facing south or north
depending on the circumstances – facing south to take advantage of the
sun for as long as possible each day or facing north to provide shade
for some time each day.
The praise of Italy
Varro, Vergil and the Elder Pliny each praised the fine climate enjoyed by Italy. Varro (
Rust.1.2.3-7)
attributed Italy’s climate to its being between Asia and the west and
because it escaped the extremes of the frozen north and the hot south.
Italy, he declared, is more suited to cultivation than Asia and more
temperate than farther inland in Europe. What useful product --and he
was thinking of grain, wine and oil – fails to grow in Italy? Italy is
“completely under cultivation” and is planted with so many trees that
all of Italy is like an orchard (
pomarium).
Vergil picks up the theme (
G. 2. 136-76). Spring is incessant (
assiduum) and summer extends to months where it doesn't belong (
alienis mensibus).
Italy bears “teeming fruit”, “Bacchus’ juice”, “olive-trees and
pleasing herds.” He makes the astounding claim that in this wonderful
climate twice each year herds give birth and trees bear fruit. This was
certainly not generally true though occasional examples were known.
Pliny indulged in praise of Italy twice: near the beginning of his
Natural History
in book 3 (39-42) and at the end in book 37 (201-2). In book 3 he
rhapsodized on the fresh and healthful climate, the fertile fields, the
sunny hill sides. In book 37 (201-2) he proclaimed that there was no
country so beautiful; the climate is healthful and mild. In an echo of
Varro, Pliny says that the land occupies the most favourable position,
because it lies midway between East and West.
In contrast, Columella began his work with an indication that all was not well in agriculture (
R.R.
preface). The soil and the climate were blamed for poor harvests
although he believed that knowledge of farming and hard work with an
appropriate amount of fertilizer would enable production equal to the
past. He advised farmers to inform themselves about what crops were
suitable for their region and also to pay attention to weather signs. He
lamented a decline of productivity in Italy, that land owners were
using land for meadows and pasture or timber in place of vines and
orchards (Columella 3.3.1). Columella (3.3.4 cf. Varro 1.44.2)
attributed this to carelessness: people planted the worst kind of
cuttings, did not nourish i.e. fertilize vines, and were careless about
cultivating.
Neither
Cato writing before the Roman Warm Period nor Palladius writing after
made such claims for the Italian climate. For Cato, a farm will be
successful if the landowner manages resources, including human
resources, well. Palladius had farms on Sardinia and in Italy near
Rome; in a number of places he contrasted the time of year when certain
tasks should be done in cold regions and hot regions with an indication
that he himself had farmed in such extremes (3. 25. 27, 4.10.15 and
8.3.2). The easiest way to get started with oleiculture was to find
olive trees in woodlands or uninhabited places, cut the roots in cubit
lengths and set them out in a nursery or orchard (3.18.6). One imagines
an olive tree deep in a woods or in a field near an old abandoned farm
house. Olives were long lived and remarkably resilient so such olive
trees must have been neglected for a long time.
Roman references to climate change
a) Columella
Columella
and Pliny both mention the possibility that climate had changed. The
agricultural writer Saserna had read a treatise by the astronomer
Hipparchus (c. 190 - c. 120 BCE) who had noted that some star positions
did not match the observations of his predecessors and formulated the
theory of the precession of the equinoxes (now called axial precession).
For us the north celestial pole is very close to Polaris in Ursa Minor
(the Little Dipper). For Hipparchus the nearest bright star was β Ursae
Minoris, in the bowl of the Little Dipper and it was not very close. It
takes 26,000 years for the celestial north pole to complete the cycle
and come back to the starting point. Hipparchus speculated that at some
future time the celestial poles would change position. Saserna concluded
that this change in position had already happened and had resulted in
dramatic climate change:
regions which before could not keep safe any shoot of the vine or olive
which had been planted because of the constant violence of winter, are
now rich with generous olive harvests and the vintage of Bacchus, now
that the earlier coldness has been mitigated and become temperate
(Columella 1.1.5).
Saserna believed that he was observing the effects of climate change
predicted by Hipparchus and that olives and vines were growing in his
lifetime where they had not grown before. Columella placed him between
Cato who died in 149 BCE and Varro (b. 116 BCE) whose work on
agriculture was written in 37 BCE. This presumably milder climate will
have occurred between the second half of the 2nd century BCE to the
first half of the 1st century and fits with the Roman Warm period.
b) Pliny
Pliny (HN 15. 1.1-4) cited the late first century BCE historian
Fenestella who had reported that the olive “did not exist at all in
Italy, Spain, or Africa during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus” (in 580
BCE) “but now” (that is in the first century BCE) “it has reached even
across the Alps and into the middle of Spain and Gaul.” This fits with
Saserna’s observation that olives and vines grew in his day where the
climate had become milder.
How
we understand Fenestella depends on how the references to Italy, Spain
and Africa are taken. The evidence of paleobotany demonstrates that
Fenestella was wrong: olives had been cultivated in Spain from the 7th
century BCE (Buxó 2008) and in Africa – specifically around Carthage
--from the 6th century BCE (Lebreton et al. 2015). Breton (2009) argues
that wild native olives in France near Marseille and in Africa from
Morocco to Tunisia had been domesticated, though the Greeks and
Phoenicians may have introduced other domesticated olives. I suggest
that Fenestella was thinking of the intentional establishment of olive
orchards by the Romans “across the Alps” and “the middle of Spain and
Gaul”, quite possibly ignoring what was growing there.
Fenestella’s
stipulation of a specific year (580 BCE) indicates that something
changed and it has been suggested that it was the inclusion of Minerva
in the Capitoline triad (cf. Varro
ant. diu. fr. 18). It would
be natural to think that olives, the tree sacred to Athena, would have
been introduced in that year in Minerva’s honour.
If
I am right that Fenestella was implying a distinction between the
coastal areas of Sicily and Italy and central Italy, between the coast
of Spain and Gaul and the interior, and between Italy and the land on
the other side of the Alps, then his statement that olives did not grow
in the 6th century BCE in Italy, Spain and Africa would mean that they
did not grow in the interior.
Expansion and contraction of olive culture in the Mediaeval and Little Ice Age
Climatologists
(Moriondi et al. 2013) have detected an expansion of olive culture in
Europe to the north during the Mediaeval Climate Anomaly (900-1200 CE)
when temperatures were warmer and a retreat to the south during the
cooling of the Little Ice Age (1400-1900 CE). Moriondi et al. compare
this to the expansion of olive growing mentioned by Pliny beyond the
Alps into Gaul and in the interior of Spain.
Advice on growing the olive
When
the advice on olive culture in the various authors is compared, we can
see a development from Cato to Palladius. Cato was writing for people
who needed detailed instructions on planting and care of olive trees and
the equipment needed for pressing to produce oil as well as the number
of workers needed for various tasks. He listed the many uses of
amurca, the side product of producing olive oil – the lees: as a fertilizer (
Ag 36, 93), to keep down weeds and ward off pests (
Ag. 91, 92, 95, 98), to coat containers for storing food (
Ag 94, 101), and to protect leather, metal and pottery (
Ag 97) as if his readers might fail to realize how useful
amurca was.
Varro,
in contrast, assumed that his readership would know what equipment was
needed for processing olives and how grafting was done and did not need
lengthy descriptions. He gave brief advice on the kind of soil preferred
(
Rust. 64), when to plant and prune and the harvest (
Rust.
78-9). Vergil was born in Mantua in the north of Italy which was not
famous for olive growing and as a result he was rather dismissive of
olive culture (
G. 2.420).
Columella was concerned that land owners were using land for meadows and pasture or timber in place of vines and orchards (
R.R. 3.3.1).
He remained convinced that fruit trees and vines could be grown
successfully and in books 3 to 5 gave detailed and painstaking
instructions for planting, cultivating, grafting and pruning.
Pliny
read widely – or had work read to him – and gathered relevant material
from past writers. His 15th book on fruit trees and vines is less how to
grow olives than interesting things to know about them.
An
intriguing reference to establishing an olive orchard is found in
Palladius (3.18.6). The quick and easy way of growing olives was to dig
up olive roots from forests or abandoned lands, cut them into lengths
and plant them. Olives were notorious for their long life and their
ability to sprout from apparently dead wood. It appears that the owners
had stopped caring for their olive orchards (and vineyards). There are
other references to an agrarian recession from the second century on,
possibly as the Roman Warm period came to an end (White 1970, 31). We
should also bear in mind that climate change does not affect temperature
only; there may be too much or too little rain, causing flooding or
drought and wreaking havoc on crops.
Conclusion
Olives
are not only the typical crop of a Mediterranean climate, they are not
grown successfully in other climates. They need the hot, dry summers and
cool wet winters characteristic of this climate. The fact that they
thrived further north in Gaul and central Spain suggests that the
climate has changed.
They
were domesticated from a native wild olive as early as the Neolithic
era, were grown as a crop in the Greek Mediterranean in the Bronze Age
and were brought to the west by Phoenician and Greek colonists where
they bore fruit in settlements near the sea, in Sicily, south Italy, and
the coasts of Spain, Gaul and north Africa.
Climate
change between 100 BCE and 200 CE, the Roman Warm period, supported an
expansion of olive growing to the north (on the other side of the Alps)
and further inland (in the middle of Spain and Gaul). In addition to
these references, passages in praise of Italy and its ideal climate may
also reflect a change. In Columella’s time, farming was less successful
than it had been, as he believed, because of poor techniques and
insufficient fertilizer, and olive orchards were being replaced by
meadows, pastures and timber stands which required less intensive work.
By the fourth century CE olive trees could be found abandoned or
surrounded by forests. In addition to a loss of agricultural skill, this
giving up of olive orchards and other crops may be the result of cooler
temperatures as the Roman Warm period came to an end.
M. E. Irwin irwin@utsc.utoronto.ca
Texts and translations of the Roman agricultural writers
Ash, H. B. 1977.
Columella, De Re Rustica v. 1. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press
Brehaut, Ernest. 1933.
Cato the Censor on Farming. New York: Columbia University Press. New York.
Dalby, Andrew.
Cato On Farming. De agricultura. A modern translation with commentary. 1998. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books.
Fitch, J. G. 2013.
Palladius. The Work of Farming. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books.
Forster, E.S. and Edward H. Heffner. 1968 (v. 2)
Columella, De Re Rustica. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press.
Forster, E.S. and Edward H. Heffner. 1979 (v. 3).
Columella, De Re Rustica. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press.
Hooper, W.D. and H. B. Ash 1979.
Cato and Varro, De re rustica. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press.
Hort, A. 1916. (v. 1), 1926 (v. 2). Theophrastus.
Enquiry into plants and minor works on odours and weather signs. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press.
Jones, W.H.S. 1969, 1980.
Pliny. Natural History vv. 20-23, 24-27. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press.
Rackham, H. 1949.
Pliny Natural History. v.1. London and Cambridge MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press.
Thomas, R.F. 1988.
Virgil. Georgics. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tilly, Bertha. 1973.
Varro the farmer: a selection from the Res rusticae. London: University Tutorial Press.
Roman agriculture and climate change
Boardman, John. 1976. The olive in the Mediterranean: its culture and use.
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Land. B. 275, 187-196.
Buxó, Ramon. 2008. The agricultural consequences of colonial contacts on the Iberian Peninsula
in the first millennium B.C,
Veget Hist Archeobot 17:145–154.
DOI 10.1007/s00334-007-0133-7
Chen, L., Zonneveld, K.A.F. and Versteegh, G.J.M. 2011. Short term
climate variability during the "Roman Classical Period" in the eastern
Mediterranean.
Quaternary Science Reviews 30: 3880-3891.
Dunbabin, T.J. 1948.
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