subject: The Fall Of The Roman Empire Was Caused By Mosquito and Malaria [print this page] The Fall Of The Roman Empire Was Caused By Mosquito and Malaria
The notable historian Edward Gibbon attributes the decline and fall of the Roman Empire to the "insidious effects of Christianity". Edward Gibbon thought Christianity is to be blamed for the decline and ultimate fall of the Roman Empire. He actually calls Christianity's role in the fall of Rome "the triumph of superstition". But it is interesting that the process Gibbon refer to, took four hundred years - considering that Christianity was born around 33 AD and Rome finally fell in 400 AD. This is a long period indeed to provide a mortal illness and collapse of Rome. By all means there should be other factors other than Christianity that caused the Roman Empire to fall.
Unlike Gibbon, most present day historians concentrate not onChristianity, buton social and economic factors and that is reasonable because those issues can be measured and traced for some extent. So let us look at some of these factors;
One of the most striking version of the fall of the Roman Empire focuses on all the fertile soil - upland farms - well drained and irrigated areas owned by landlords and being passed over to theiroffspringover generations. The poorer areas, especially the mash lands were left to the peasants. In these mashes the malaria and mosquito bred. The disease and the poverty that resulted from these breeding drove the victims into the cities where they spread the infections and perhaps that contributed to the fact that most Roman politicians if you look at their statues closely they were of a feverish kind.
So according to this theory, malaria joined perhaps by smallpox or some other plaque moved outward to the frontiers of the empire decimating the garrisons, depopulating the towns - and eventually leading to the final breakthrough of the barbarians. If this theory is true, then the Roman Empire was actually destroyed by mosquito.
