Scientists have uncovered an unlikely event that led to the Roman Empire’s collapse 1,500 years ago.
They discovered that the Romans miscalculated their Persian-Sassanian opponents which caused their downward spiral, leaving them weak and allowing Islam to rise in a manner that essentially wiped out the once-powerful civilization.
The two groups were at war from 54 BC to 628 for control of territories, but the Persians and Sassanians took over Roman trade routes that were critical to their victory.
Without access to trade, the economy quickly collapsed and forced people in the Roman Empire to flee to other regions like Constantinople, the researchers discovered.
‘Therefore, due to extensive migration and the instability of the economy and trade, the settlements and cities of the eastern Mediterranean deteriorated,’ the study said.
The team analyzed shipwrecks throughout the Mediterranean from multiple sites, such as Marseille, Naples, Carthage, eastern Spain and Alexandria, to better understand what caused the fall.
They identified a timeline for when Roman ships, which lined the shores by the hundreds at their pea, began to disappear and dwindled down to just dozens by the second half of the 7th century.
The information ‘led us to conclude that the eastern Roman Empire started to decline … after a [disruption in trade] and military failures,’ Dr Lev Cosijns and Dr Haggai Olshanetsky told DailyMail.com.
Previous research had suggested that a plague decimated the Roman Empire in 543 AD.
But the new study found the civilization was at the height of its power, economic output and population.
Researchers looked at the number of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea and pottery uncovered at archaeology sites.
They discovered more than 16,000 pieces of pottery uncovered in Nessana – a city located in the southwest Negev desert in Israel, close to the Egyptian border.
The shards were determined to have been traded by the Roman Empire during the late 6th and early 7th centuries, which confirmed that the civilization was still thriving.
The team also investigated shipwreck data from Roman ships during the 2nd century through the 7th century to determine when the sea trade ended.
Dr Olshanetsky and Dr Cosijns said during the 2nd century AD, the number of Roman shipwrecks stayed consistent with between 200 and 300 occurring every 50 years.
But that number drastically dropped to 100 by 551 AD and dropped to just 67 by the second half of the 7th century, signifying that their trade routes were cut off.
The Roman and Persian Empires fought to control territories to expand their influence throughout Armenia, Mesopotamia and northern Syria.
These territories were strategically important because they offered more border protection and access to vital trade routes.
The Roman Empire won the war under the leadership of Emperor Heraclius who launched a counterattack deep into Persian territory, catching the army off guard and forcing them into a decisive battle near the ruins of Nineveh.
But the disrupted trade route slowly weakened the Roman Empire, leading to their demise.
The team set out to disprove theories that surfaced four decades ago, blaming climate change and the Justinianic plague for the Roman Empire’s decline in the 6th Century.
Recent studies have claimed that the plague – which occurred from 541 AD to 750 AD – contributed to the Roman Empire’s decline because it caused the deaths of nearly half of the population.
However, Dr Cosijns and Dr Olshanetsky discovered that the population hadn’t declined during the 6th Century, as previously believed, but had increased in both numbers and prosperity during that time.
The researchers said their findings go against other people who minimize the current climate crisis today by linking the mini ice age that occurred in the 6th century to the fall of the Roman Empire, claiming that it has always occurred and therefore is nothing to be concerned about.
‘We think that looking for climate change and plague as the cause for every significant change in history is problematic,’ Dr Olshanetsky and Dr Cosijns said.
‘This approach can especially harm the current climate change debate when claiming that past climate change caused catastrophic disruptions in society, in cases when there were none or limited effects,’ they continued.
‘Such claims may inadvertently support arguments that state since climate change has always occurred, the current man-made one is not a serious issue.’
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