Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
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Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
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Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#2It's interesting to note how many historical figures we really only know about through one or two sources, and those sources may be themselves biased.
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#3One thing I really got out of the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan is if anyone tells you there was ONE cause of the fall of Rome, they're full of crap.
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#4One thing I really got out of the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan is if anyone tells you there was ONE cause of the fall of Rome, they're full of crap.
What I find recently is that the folks suggesting Rome fell because of ONE cause, that one cause tends to be some political fringe talking point. So there's some other clues in there.
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#5One thing I really got out of the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan is if anyone tells you there was ONE cause of the fall of Rome, they're full of crap.
I would even extend the point to applying to the failure or success of all complex systems.
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#6In the U.S., lead was purposely added to food until 1988, so it’s not like this is an exclusively ancient problem.
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#7One thing I really got out of the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan is if anyone tells you there was ONE cause of the fall of Rome, they're full of crap.
And if you really want to boil it down to a single reason, the best candidate would be "becoming militarily dependent on hired mercenaries and then not paying them" rather than something more interesting
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#8I was surprised how nice their homes were. Had nicer villas than most people's homes.
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#9In the U.S., lead was purposely added to food until 1988, so it’s not like this is an exclusively ancient problem.
That's a bold claim, do you have a source to back that up?
Re: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall of the Roman Empire
#10In the U.S., lead was purposely added to food until 1988, so it’s not like this is an exclusively ancient problem.
That's a bold claim, do you have a source to back that up?
I'd be interested too, the only thing I could find was the Lead Contamination Act of 1988 that was supposed to fight contaminated water coolers - pretty bizarre that this was actually a thing.
[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/100th-congress/senate-bill/261...