Disease and Death in the Ancient City of Rome

Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics

14 Pages Posted: 21 Feb 2009 Last revised: 24 Mar 2009

Date Written: March 21, 2009

Abstract

This paper surveys textual and physical evidence of disease and mortality in the city of Rome in the late republican and imperial periods. It emphasizes the significance of seasonal mortality data and the weaknesses of age at death records and paleodemographic analysis, considers the complex role of environmental features and public infrastructure, and highlights the very considerable promise of scientific study of skeletal evidence of stress and disease.

Keywords: Roman History, Demography, Disease, Seasonal Mortality, Paleodemography

JEL Classification: I12

Suggested Citation

Scheidel, Walter, Disease and Death in the Ancient City of Rome (March 21, 2009). Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1347510 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1347510

Walter Scheidel (Contact Author)

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305-2145
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www,stanford.edu/~scheidel

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,436
Abstract Views
4,524
Rank
24,860
PlumX Metrics