08-30-2016, 11:00 AM
Christopher, I find your arguments very hard to follow as you tend to make very long posts which contain a lot of contrasting information. You should try to make smaller posts dedicated to a specific topic that can then be carefully debated.
In relation to the plague issue, you just don't see evidence from the records of pandemic outbreaks that would cause a civilisation to collapse, they tended to be localised breakouts that were over relatively quickly once the plague ran its course. Because transport was limited to horses, oxen, mules, camels and humans the spread was limited by how far a person could travel in a day or two. Once word spread that a plague was infecting a location you hear tales that surrounding cities, towns and villages would not allow strangers to enter for fear of contagion, further limiting the outbreak.
You appear to have overlooked the fact that civil war between rival factions in the Empire probably resulted in much higher deaths than plagues caused during the 3rd-4th Centuries AD. Take the Battle of Mursa in AD351, the armies of Constantius Ii and the usurper Magnentius fought probably the largest Roman vs Roman battle and losses were in excess of 50,000 dead, many more wounded. This led directly to most of Gaul being denuded of troops and allowing the Alamanni and Franks to overrun large portions of that province. However, within just six years Julian was able to recover Gaul on behalf of Constantius. The Late Empire was very resilient even after the defeat at Adrianople.
In relation to the plague issue, you just don't see evidence from the records of pandemic outbreaks that would cause a civilisation to collapse, they tended to be localised breakouts that were over relatively quickly once the plague ran its course. Because transport was limited to horses, oxen, mules, camels and humans the spread was limited by how far a person could travel in a day or two. Once word spread that a plague was infecting a location you hear tales that surrounding cities, towns and villages would not allow strangers to enter for fear of contagion, further limiting the outbreak.
You appear to have overlooked the fact that civil war between rival factions in the Empire probably resulted in much higher deaths than plagues caused during the 3rd-4th Centuries AD. Take the Battle of Mursa in AD351, the armies of Constantius Ii and the usurper Magnentius fought probably the largest Roman vs Roman battle and losses were in excess of 50,000 dead, many more wounded. This led directly to most of Gaul being denuded of troops and allowing the Alamanni and Franks to overrun large portions of that province. However, within just six years Julian was able to recover Gaul on behalf of Constantius. The Late Empire was very resilient even after the defeat at Adrianople.
Adrian Coombs-Hoar
