Between roughly the years 200 b.c. and a.d. 150—when Rome flourished as republic and empire—a set of pleasant and profitable climate conditions settled upon the west. For nearly four centuries, there were no massive volcanic eruptions of the sort that from time to time depress temperatures across the globe; during the same age solar activity was high and stable.11 As a result, western Europe and the broader Mediterranean fringe enjoyed a cycle of unusually warm and hospitable decades, which also happened to be very wet.12 Plants and animals flourished: elephants roamed forests in the Atlas
...more
