Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome, written for a popular audience, uses the environment to explain the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The book asserts that Rome fell as a result of environmental stress, in particular through a combination of pandemic disease and climate change. Although we agree that the environment can and should be integrated within traditional historical accounts, we challenge the book's claims on several issues. These include Harper's use of primary sources and secondary literature, his approach to analyzing palaeoclimate data, his interpretations of the impact of disease on the Roman state and society, and his synthesis of social, economic, and environmental history. Throughout this and the following two sections of this review, we demonstrate that several major flaws undermine the book's overarching argument, casting serious doubts on its conclusions.

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》（1）的回应：气候

凯尔·哈珀（Kyle Harper）的《罗马的命运》（Fate of Rome）是为大众而写的，它使用环境来解释罗马帝国的衰亡。该书断言罗马是由于环境压力而倒下的，特别是由于大流行病和气候变化的结合。尽管我们同意可以并且应该将环境整合到传统的历史记录中，但是我们对本书在几个问题上的主张提出了质疑。这些包括Harper对原始资料和二手文献的使用，他对古气候数据的分析方法，对疾病对罗马国家和社会影响的解释以及对社会，经济和环境历史的综合分析。在本回顾的这一部分以及接下来的两部分中，我们证明了一些主要缺陷破坏了本书的内容。