800 years before the Black Death, the very same bacteria ravaged Rome, killing 60%+ of the population in many areas.
Also, back-to-back volcanic eruptions caused a mini Ice Age, leaving Rome devastated by famine and disease.
I chatted with historian Kyle Harper about this and much else:
* Rome as a massive slave society
* Why humans are more disease-prone than other animals
* How agriculture made us physically smaller (Caesar at 5'5" was considered tall)
Watch on Youtube; listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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SPONSORS
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To sponsor a future episode, visit dwarkesh.com/advertise.
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KYLE'S BOOKS
* The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
* Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History
* Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425
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TIMESTAMPS
(00:00:00) - Plague's impact on Rome's collapse
(00:06:24) - Rome's little Ice Age
(00:11:51) - Why did progress stall in Rome's Golden Age?
(00:23:55) - Slavery in Rome
(00:36:22) - Was agriculture a mistake?
(00:47:42) - Disease's impact on cognitive function
(00:59:46) - Plague in India and Central Asia
(01:05:16) - The next pandemic
(01:16:48) - How Kyle uses LLMs
(01:18:51) - De-extinction of lost species