On this episode, AccuWeather founder & Executive Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers and AccuWeather Network Chief Meteorologist Bernie Rayno uncover how a distant volcanic eruption played a role in transforming the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
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00:00Welcome to Invisible Iceberg.
00:06On today's show, we'll take you back to the Ides of March, a pivotal moment when the
00:12assassination of Julius Caesar changed the course of history.
00:17We'll uncover how a distant volcanic eruption played a surprising role in transforming the
00:23Roman Empire.
00:25Plus, what if that volcanic eruption never happened?
00:29We'll explore what might have been different.
00:32And later, we'll examine the Roman Empire's enduring influence on today's modern world.
00:38It all starts now, on Invisible Iceberg.
00:47Could a volcanic eruption halfway across the world have sealed the fate of the Roman Republic?
00:54Mount Okmok's massive blast in 43 BCE plunged the Mediterranean into years of cold, wet
01:01weather, decimating its food supply and weakening Roman military might.
01:07As the power struggle ignited by Julius Caesar's death unfolded, this unexpected climate shift
01:14reshaped history in unimaginable ways.
01:18It's just one of the true and fascinating stories in the book Invisible Iceberg, When
01:22Climate and Weather Shaped History.
01:24I'm Bernie Raynaud.
01:26Joining us right now is Ackie with the founder and executive chairman and author of the book
01:29Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers.
01:34Thanks for joining us today.
01:35We have a very interesting and I think a well-known story, but there's certainly lots of information
01:42with it.
01:43First of all, thanks for joining us, Dr. Joel.
01:44My pleasure.
01:45All right.
01:46There's a lot to the Roman Empire.
01:48There certainly is.
01:50The eastern part of the Roman Empire lasted 2,000 years, or the Roman, what you can consider
01:57the Roman Republic of the Roman Empire.
01:59Roman Republic, which the United States is partially modeled after, and we study in our
02:07history books and so on, began 600 BC, 600 BC.
02:13It lasted in the western part of the Roman Empire to 600 AD and 1,400 AD for the eastern
02:22part.
02:23So it had a tremendous impact on culture and people, military tactics, lessons in debt.
02:32We've studied it in European schools, American schools, maybe not enough.
02:37So it was a republic, and then it turned into an empire, meaning that it became a dictatorship.
02:43It was a representative form of government, got in debt, there's lessons to be learned,
02:49got in debt, could not maintain same kind of government, had to be more forceful leadership
02:55from the top in order to keep things under control.
03:00We can spend all that time talking about that, but this is really about how the weather and
03:04climate impacted and what effect it had on the evolution of the Roman Empire.
03:10Well, let's start with, of course, everybody knows this story.
03:12Let's go over it again because there's a little more to it.
03:15The Ides of March, Julius Caesar was given the term emperor, dictator, correct?
03:24And that caused a stir.
03:26Well, yeah.
03:27The Senate, of course, was a representative form of government, was concerned that Julius
03:30Caesar was becoming too powerful, even though he didn't have all the powers of a dictatorship
03:36and they were afraid it was going there.
03:38So 60 conspirators got together, senators, and decided to assassinate him together so
03:45that there were too many of them to be all hanged and killed, right?
03:52And to save, quote, save the republic.
03:54What happens next?
03:55This is where the power struggle begins, does it not?
03:58It does.
03:59He didn't have any sons.
04:01He had a daughter.
04:02He left his fortune to Octavius.
04:06And so Octavius had all the wealth.
04:10Mark Anthony, who is famous and gives a speech in the play by Shakespeare, subtly supported
04:19Caesar and his speech, rather than was expected to turn the crowd against Caesar, sort of
04:28created some sympathy for him.
04:30And so eventually that turned into a power struggle between the two of them.
04:33But all of that was complicated by an event that occurred on the other side of the world,
04:39a huge volcanic eruption that occurred in the Aleutian Change part of Alaska today.
04:44Nine months after Caesar was assassinated, this huge volcano exploded, creating a crater
04:53six miles across, tremendous amounts of debris thrown up into the high atmosphere, circled
04:58the earth, shielded the sun, caused massive cooling.
05:02It was the second biggest cooling event of the last 2,500 years.
05:07Obviously, that caused all kinds of crop failures around the world.
05:11People, you know, there's nothing worse, people starving, can't feed their kids.
05:16It was an agricultural society across Italy, Rome, and into the Middle East, the Mediterranean,
05:23and so on.
05:24And so there was a lot of stress for 10 years.
05:26I mean, there was tremendous cooling, 15 degrees or more of cooling in many places for two
05:32or three years, but the cooling lasted for 10, a lot of crop failures, and this added
05:38to the turmoil.
05:39You know, whenever, when we continue to go through your book, Invisible Iceberg, When
05:45Climate and Weather Shapes History, whenever the weather changed dramatically, so does
05:52the economy.
05:54And it seems as though every time we see this happen, the results are the same.
06:01That's right.
06:03Well, let's learn from history.
06:04First of all, they may not have any control over that, and there is turmoil, but remember,
06:08the Roman Republic, like the United States, got overextended, deeply in debt, controlled
06:18a significant portion of the Middle East and Europe, and so on, and the only way to keep
06:25order was to be a more and more powerful central government, controlling the people and decisions,
06:31so it became a dictatorship.
06:32All of the turmoil, then, how did that impact the leadership of Rome?
06:37Well, there was power struggles.
06:39Anthony was ultimately killed.
06:41What they did is the survivors demanded that all the opponents be killed, and they had
06:48prices on their heads.
06:49I mean, it was leadership, a lot of people assassinated, and they set up a triumphant
06:55of three-headed monster, if you will, that controlled the Roman Empire for centuries
07:02thereafter, and as I said, but it went on for centuries.
07:06The Constitution in a lot of the United States was based on the positive parts of the Republic
07:14that the Roman Republic represented before it became an empire.
07:18Let's face it, we're all better off with a republic form of government, a representative
07:24form of democracy.
07:25There's a lot to this story with the power struggle and the volcano, but certainly weather
07:31shaped that history quite a bit, Dr. Joel.
07:34The chain, though, is the weather affects the economy, and the economy, it's about money
07:41and having sound money, a lack of overwhelming debt that allows a civilization and culture
07:51to survive.
07:52Stay with us, because coming up, we'll be talking with you again in just a few minutes.
07:57Here now with more perspective is Joe McConnell, research professor at the Desert Research
08:03Institute in Reno, Nevada.
08:05Professor, thanks for joining us here today.
08:08Thank you for having me.
08:10How did the volcanic particles change the weather in the Mediterranean region?
08:16When a volcano erupts, if it's powerful enough, it puts out a lot of sulfur dioxide that,
08:22as I said, if it's powerful enough, it makes it up into the stratosphere, so about, let's
08:26say, 15 kilometers above the Earth's surface.
08:29Those little state particles are very bright and reflective.
08:32They act like an umbrella that shields the Earth from incoming sunlight and basically
08:39cools the Earth.
08:40If that eruption happens in the Northern Hemisphere, high latitude Northern Hemisphere, as this
08:45Okmulk eruption did in Alaska, it tends to create a strong Northern Hemisphere cooling
08:52event.
08:54Was that the main impact on the Roman Empire?
08:58You can imagine if you suddenly had a cooling that lasted for nearly two years and everything
09:02was about 10 or 15 degrees cooler, you can imagine that would have a big impact.
09:06It not only changes the temperature, but it also changes the precipitation patterns.
09:11How did your team study the volcanic ash and make the connection between the Alaska
09:16volcano and what happened in the Roman Empire?
09:20Sure.
09:21I'm a climate scientist, an environmental scientist, and I focus on ice core studies.
09:27We go out and collect ice cores in Greenland or Antarctica, and our colleagues do as well.
09:33Then we analyze them in my lab in Reno very accurately or very carefully for the chemistry
09:39in them.
09:40What we were able to do, and we can date these things, so imagine it's kind of like a tree
09:44ring series.
09:45We just count the years, one year after another.
09:49Because of variability during the year, we can actually say what month the eruption actually
09:53is likely to have happened.
09:55From that, we were able to look at the chemistry, all of that sulfur fallout.
09:59I was talking about the reflective sulfate.
10:02That falls out over a year or two after the eruption.
10:06We were able to measure that and see these massive spikes in sulfur that occurred in
10:1043, 42, and finally went back to normal in 41 BCE.
10:15That's how we were able to identify Okmok in Alaska.
10:18Joe McConnell, research professor at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, thanks
10:24again for joining us today.
10:25Yeah, thanks very much for having me.
10:29Coming up later, discover how the legacy of the Roman Empire continues to influence our
10:34modern world.
10:36Up next in our What If segment, we'll explore what might have been different if there was
10:41no volcanic eruption at all.
10:44Find out how it may have altered the course of civilization after the break.
11:03Welcome back to Invisible Iceberg, I'm Bernie Raynaud.
11:06Now it's time for our What If segment.
11:09Joining me again is Akiwa, the founder and executive chairman and author of the book
11:12Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers.
11:17All right, Dr. Joel, this is a tough question.
11:21These What Ifs can be.
11:23What if, or what would be different if the volcanic eruption never happened at all during
11:29this period?
11:31We're talking about the huge volcanic eruption that occurred in Alaska in 43 B.C., which
11:38caused the coldest, second coldest period in the last 2,500 years.
11:42Ten years of very cold temperatures, crop failures.
11:48The Roman Empire would have evolved differently.
11:50Clearly, there was an impact all over the world, but we know a lot about the Roman Empire.
11:54We've studied it, and there was a period of ten years of turmoil, and it affected every
12:02aspect of culture, the rule, I mean, the troops, they were starving.
12:08They were forging off whatever was available.
12:11But it caused the leadership to clamp down harder and to get more and more food however
12:18they could.
12:20And of course, they had to have a very strong military control of the people, because the
12:25people were unhappy.
12:27They were starving themselves.
12:29They had to give up, in some cases, what they had to the army.
12:33It was a time of great turmoil.
12:35And did you feel as if this event did cement Augustus' reign?
12:41Well, as is often the case, when there's turmoil or a crisis, the central government grabs
12:48more and more power and suppresses whatever dissent there is in order to maintain order
12:57and control things and survive themselves.
13:00It certainly looks like that occurred here.
13:02So it could have evolved much differently without the climatic hardships.
13:07I'm sure it would have.
13:09As is often the case in history books and how we've learned, not enough attention and
13:15credit is given to the economic impacts, the climate effects.
13:22And so the history doesn't have as much about this.
13:25But just surmising what we know about what happened, the weather, climate, food, all
13:32of it tied together, resulting from this huge volcanic eruption.
13:37And certainly the Roman influence on today's life can be seen in many, many areas, certainly
13:45in forms of government and speech.
13:48But I understand the calendar, and this was something that I was a little surprised about
13:52as we looked into this more, the calendar influenced by Caesar itself.
13:58Yeah, the calendar up to that point had 10 months and it was sort of a gap period.
14:03I don't know what went on in that period, but about 60 days.
14:08So they added two months and made it 12, because September, October, November, December
14:14I guess mean 7, 8, 9, 10.
14:18The translated, that's what they mean.
14:21July is named after Julius Caesar.
14:25August is named after Augustus.
14:29These were the two gods proclaimed by people, the great rulers, Caesar after he was assassinated.
14:37So they were the two gods, the great leaders, as they were enshrined, and so two months
14:46were named after them, and we still use that calendar with those names today.
14:50And how did England and the United States view events that occurred in Rome?
14:56Well we all studied the great, if you look back at what you study in history, Rome, the
15:01Roman Empire, the whole Roman period played a tremendous role in establishing, setting
15:07the stage for democracy, for a form of government that evolved in the UK and then in the United
15:15States.
15:16A lot of what we've done with the Constitution and so on, a form of government based on the
15:21Roman Empire, actually the Roman Republic, unfortunately it evolved into a dictatorship
15:29and that's, you see that in Star Wars, you see that in the Constitution, the Senate,
15:34and a lot of the terms that we use and have enshrined in the Constitution come from the
15:41Roman Empire.
15:42So it's been studied, it played a huge role as the foundation for a lot of things that
15:48we hold dear in our Constitution and elsewhere today.
15:51Let's get it back to the United States founding fathers.
15:55It had an influence on them and also a lot of the American political ideals.
16:00Absolutely, yeah.
16:02And even some of the quotes, give me liberty or give me death, by Nathan Hale, oh no, Nathan
16:08Hale said, I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
16:14All those sayings that we study are just a somewhat twist of what was said earlier by
16:22some of the great Romans.
16:25And when we look back at the Roman Empire, it's just amazing how much influence it has
16:35had, even today, on Western society.
16:38But we need to learn the lesson.
16:41We need to have reserves to deal with the unexpected, whether it's a war or a climate
16:49catastrophe or whatever, because it can bring down nations, as we've seen in this book,
16:56time after time.
16:57If the United States is to endure, we can't get too much debt and we need to have reserves
17:04to deal with the unexpected.
17:06And it's just, you see the same lessons over and over and over again throughout your book
17:13here, do you not?
17:14And often not learned.
17:15Not learned, right.
17:16From one society and culture to the next.
17:19Well, we're going to continue to delve into this book and by the end of this, I think
17:23everybody will have those lessons learned.
17:25We're going to try to change the future.
17:27I don't know if we can.
17:28We'll try.
17:29We're going to try.
17:30We'll see if anybody listens.
17:31All right.
17:32I want to thank Akiwa, the founder and executive chairman, and author of the book Invisible
17:35Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers, for joining us today.
17:41My pleasure, Bernie.
17:42That was a great, great story.
17:43Up next, we'll look at how the Roman Empire's pioneering innovations continue to shape our
17:50daily lives.
18:04Welcome back to Invisible Iceberg.
18:05I'm Bernie Raynaud.
18:06While a volcano launched the Roman Empire, many inventions came out of that civilization
18:12that are still with us today.
18:15Here's some influential innovations from the Roman Empire.
18:19First, aqueducts.
18:21Romans created aqueducts to supply water.
18:24They built bridges with artificial channels for sending water to cities.
18:29They also built an extensive network of lead pipes to both bring water in and send wastewater
18:36out.
18:37In fact, the word plumbing came from the Latin word for lead, plumbum.
18:42And that plumbing laid the groundwork for today's water supply and sanitation systems.
18:48Next, architecture.
18:50Romans designed buildings with advanced engineering skills using arches, vaults, and domes to
18:56span distances.
18:58Buildings like the Colosseum and the Pantheon were built using concrete.
19:03Romans created the durable material using volcanic ash, lime, and seawater.
19:09Lastly, roads.
19:11The Romans built road and highway networks that allowed trade, communication, and military
19:17movements.
19:18Modern road systems are still modeled on the principles created by the Romans.
19:24That's our show for today.
19:26For more information and to get your copy of the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate
19:31and Weather Shaped History by Dr. Joel Myers, go to InvisibleIceberg.com.
19:36If you have any questions or comments, send us an email at questions at AccuWeather.com
19:43and we look forward to seeing you next time.