This is the last of a three‐part review of Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome. Here, we scrutinize Harper's treatment of the Justinianic Plague, demonstrating how he crafts a convincing narrative based on rhetorical flourishes but little evidence. We call further attention to several internal contradictions within the chapter and misinterpretations of evidence. We conclude this series of articles with a reflection on Harper's deterministic approach to environmental history. While the environment appears everywhere, agency (people: society and culture) is mostly absent. We finish by emphasizing the need to develop more nuanced causal explanations for complex historical processes and suggest that future attempts to bring together such wide‐ranging material be done within interdisciplinary research teams.

中文翻译：

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瘟疫，气候变化和帝国的终结：对凯尔·哈珀（Kyle Harper）的《罗马的命运》（3）的回应：疾病，病原体和崩溃

这是凯尔·哈珀（Kyle Harper）的《罗马的命运》（The Fate of Rome）分为三部分的最后一部分。在这里，我们仔细研究了哈珀对查士丁尼瘟疫的处理方式，展示了哈珀如何根据夸张的说法但缺乏证据来撰写令人信服的叙事。我们呼吁本章进一步关注一些内部矛盾和对证据的误解。在本系列文章的结尾，我们反思了Harper对环境历史的确定性方法。尽管环境无处不在，但几乎没有代理商（人：社会和文化）。最后，我们强调需要为复杂的历史过程开发更细微的因果关系解释，并建议将来在跨学科研究团队中尝试将如此广泛的材料整合在一起。