This is the Friends of Mr. Debating Society. I'm John Bachel with my colleague, Germanicus,

Mark of Lejos. We are in Londonium by the Thames, as we find ourselves on a Sunday evening,

heading to the theatre, although there is talk that the theatre might be closed because

there is talk of an epidemic in some fashion. People have been ill and we get very superstitious

about that because our understanding of illness spreading through the Empire is bad luck.

At the same time, we learn from the 21st century that we are living in the middle of the

Roman-warme period, from about 300 AD to about 300 BCE to about 500 common era. In other

words, an 800 year swing, the Mediterranean world enjoyed a stable climate relative to

before and after. Warme periods have come and gone over the last 10,000 years. There is

new information that a warme period can be useful for civilizations, for empires, for city

states, for opportunistic rascals to take advantage of this stable climate which leads

to stable crops, which leads to prosperity, to splendor. The Romans had our Roman world had

two things that gave us an advantage. One, the Mediterranean, meaning we had a highway

to all parts of the Mediterranean basin. And two, we were very blessed with a stable environment.

Not too many volcanoes, not too many La Niña El Niño cycles and so cycles in the North Atlantic,

not too many tsunamis, not too many heavy rainstorms, and not too many bad rulers until the

third century. We ran into bumps there. And some hesitation on pandemics, we do run into a

pandemic in the sixth century that is very damaging, that may or may not be connected to natural

phenomenon. But I turned to my friend Germanicus to say, I'd like to claim the might of Rome was a

product of our good education and our careful governance here in Londonium. We enjoy a period of

calm following the savagery of the local tribes earlier in the century. But Germanicus, it is also

possible that we're just lucky, taking advantage of a calm period in climate. And I don't think that

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