A Millennium of Resilience, Vulnerability and Sustainability at Rome, c. 200 BCE-800 CE

Abstract

The contribution uses the four phases of growth, conservation, release, and reorganisation of the adaptive cycle model from resilience theory in a study of developments at Rome in the millennium from the late Republic through late antiquity. In addition, the study applies the concepts of vulnerability and sustainability to investigate responses to crises. The focus is on change in the size of the city of Rome, the relationship between the city and the hinterland, and how society tried to adapt to environmental, economic, political, and social challenges. It concludes that, in the end, the city of Rome proved resilient, and entered the medieval period still the largest city of the Latin world.