Saturday Reading: A Different Take on the End of the Roman Empire

Late yesterday afternoon, the rains finally rolled in.  I had been expecting them; the air had been heavy with moisture all day, and clouds had blossomed but then rambled a different way.  In between my other duties, I had been keeping an eye on the tropical storm well to our south.

By the close of the day, my house in the North Carolina mountains was in the cone of uncertainty for Tropical Storm Debby.  Now, I'm not terribly worried, not about the storm.  The whole state of North Carolina is in the cone, with the possible exception of part of the Outer Banks.

My spouse went off for a nap, and I settled in to take advantage of a quiet house on a rainy afternoon by reading a book:  Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome:  Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire.  It's an academic book, but it reads like a thriller.  It was written and published before the Covid 19 pandemic, but it still feels informed by those events--a good reminder that the ravages of disease are not limited to any single disease.

I got it from the library expecting that only part of it would interest me.  The chapter on the Justinian Plague was so good that I went to the beginning, which gave interesting insight on the history of Rome.  I know the broad outlines of that history, but I didn't find it repetitive.

It was oddly peaceful, reading about the fall of Rome because of catastrophic plagues and watching the rain fall over my mountain homestead, while taking breaks to keep an eye on a potential hurricane.

There was a moment when I smiled at this view of myself reading for pleasure--and what do I choose?  A weighty tome about history and climate change and disease and the end of an empire.  Those who know me well would not be surprised.