Overview

• Scientists have discovered a link between cold, dry periods and devastating bouts of fatal illness between 200 B.C.E. and 600 C.E. in Roman Italy.
• Three very cold periods struck the region: between 160 and 180 C.E., between 245 and 274 C.E. and after 500 C.E. All three of those periods line up with documented plagues.
• The cold likely did not directly cause the disease outbreaks. Instead, it may have exacerbated other factors that made people more susceptible to illness. Farmers might not have been able to grow enough food, leading to malnourishment.
• These periods of cold weather may also have contributed, whether directly or indirectly, to the eventual fall of the Roman Empire.
• The new research could help inform contemporary approaches to climate change and disease.