Roman period, 60 BCE- 500 CE

Ceasar campaigns Gaul59 - 51 BCE: The Gallic Wars. The conquest of Gaul (modern day France and Belgium)

43 CE: Invasion of Britain.

Roman expansion partly driven by resource shortages and environmental degradation. The Mediterranean basin was largely deforested by the beginning of the CE. Romans required huge quantities of timber for mining, and heating, as well as for construction and the production of iron and other metals.

Grain production also drove the expansion due to the Roman population in Italy. Driven by the need to feed them Rome needed to conquer more territory that could produce grain. This drove the wars with Carthage in North Africa.  After it was conquered by the Romans North Africa was stripped of its trees and became the breadbasket of Rome.

That was not enough because Rome gradually ran out of metals such as gold, iron, led and silver and had to turn elsewhere: Northern Europe.

Northern Europe was the periphery on which the core of the Roman Empire relied for raw materials.

The direct environmental consequences of the Roman Empire in Northern Europe can be best understood by examining the following activities: Road Building, agriculture, logging, and mining and urbanisation.

Roman roads Britain
click here to enlarge

Roads. One of the most visible changes in the landscape must have been the construction of Roman roads. Over time quite a dense network of characteristically straight roads was build and cut the landscape up in a patchwork. Many of these Roman roads are still in use (following at least the course of the roads).

 

 

Agriculture
Roman plough During the Roman period a range of new crops were introduced in Britain and these included cabbage, parsnip and carrots as well as spelt. The new crops complemented the existing crops of wheat, barley, oats, tic beans, vetch, peas and rye.

The introduction of better iron ploughs that ploughed deeper and tougher soil made the cultivation of more land possible. The two handed scythes made the cutting of the cereal crops faster and easier. Better quality axes meant woodland could be cleared faster and so turned into farmland.

The livestock was also improved and by careful breeding and better supplies of winter fodder, the quality of the breeds of cows, sheep and pigs made for better quality diary and meat produce.

Logging. Wood shortage was so bad that by the first century CE ceramics factories were relocated to Gaul due of a lack of fire wood in the Roman heartland. Increasingly the Romans turned to the forests of the north in Germany for timber, for example in the Vosges Mountains.

Mining
The mining landscapes of Roman Europe had several typical features for any industrial landscape: waste tips from mass production such as slag heaps, workshops for mass production, large quarries, mineshafts and communication networks (Roads, rivers, canals) in order to transport and distribute products. Local water pollution and air pollution caused by mining and smelting. Lead production caused pollution on a wider scale: we find lead deposits in the Greenland ice cap: the first global impact of industrial activities in history?

Urban Settlements
Urban settlements increased in number and size in Northern and western Europe and were a new element in Britain when the Romans arrived. Towns sprang up all over the country.

Environmental impacts urbanization:

  • Garbage and wastewater must be transported out of cities. In order to do so the Romans devised a system of Garbage collection.
  • The Romans were also the first to build sewer systems but as a result it was very unwise to swim downstream a town since the sewerage water was dumped downstream into rivers. Luckily, the amount was relatively small so that rivers could under normal circumstances deal with this naturally.
  • Local air pollution affected people locally.
  • a serious problem in urban areas in Roman times was lead poisoning. Roman water pipes were made of lead and left little amounts of led in the water. Led is a poison and when you drink it day after day, it accumulates in the body and causes lead poisoning.

After about 350 CE, there was a shift to wetter, colder weather in north Western Europe, a deterioration that intensified after 450 CE. By the late Roman period, there may have been as much as a 10% increase in rainfall in the British Isles. Together with deforestation and expanded agriculture and grazing, heavier rains would have aggravated soil erosion and flooding. Soil would be leached of its nutrients and fertility; and heaths and bogs would have claimed arable soil and lessened productivity.

410 - Rome sacked by Visigoths  
439 - Vandals sack Carthage  
455 - Vandals sack Rome  
476 - Romulus Agustus, the last Roman Emperor, is deposed by the Gothts

Decline of Roman Empire coincides with cooling trend. It probably affected agricultural productivity. However, it is unlikely that climate fluctuations were the direct cause of the decline of the Empire. It was one of the many other problems that the Romans encountered.