Roman Agricultural Failure

In order to understand the causes behind the agricultural collapse of ancient Rome, the local environmental implications of ancient Gaul will be investigated. The province of Gaul was a major source agricultural goods and thus a large contributor of agrarian tax revenue for the central government. The agricultural failures in Gaul can be attributed to the exploitation of natural resources to fill the needs of society. The Romans exhibited a clear lack of understanding and appreciation for the natural world and sought to conquer it as they frequently did with foreign enemies. This practice of unreserved dominion over nature is one of the primary causes of the Roman agricultural collapse. The native crops of Gaul exhibited diversity and resilience

Although expansion of the Roman Empire allowed the civilization to reach new heights, scholars including Vladimir Simkhovitch suggest that exploitation of natural resources were a primary cause of the collapse of civilization. Deforestation by the Roman army led to soil erosion, depleting once fruitful farms and the forced extinction of animal species caused instability in the environment. The elimination of apex predators allowed rodent species to flourish which prompted the spread of disease and devouring of crops (Hughes, An Environmental History of the World

The socioeconomic structure within Roman society encouraged resource exhaustion by allowing landowners to exploit slave labor. The large slave workforce provided a means by which landowners could maximize profits without concern for the effects of development on the natural world. Slaves also were unable to build a connection with the land on which they worked due to required obedience and the transient nature of the slave system. Population growth during the Pax Romana also contributed to the agrarian collapse by forcing unsustainable agricultural expansion. Military conquests left entire forests barren and exhausted resource surpluses as the Roman Empire expanded beyond sustainable bounds. Lack of a heterarchical crop system left many agrarian regions vulnerable to poor yields which contributed to resource scarcity leading into the third century. The underlying cause of the agrarian collapse within ancient Rome was unsustainable expansion driven by the ideal that Romans are not part of nature, but rather superior rulers of the natural world. Although the modern agricultural system maintains distinctive differences from that of ancient Rome, the fall of Roman civilization should serve as a historical reminder of the potential consequences of unsustainable