An Environmental History of Ancient Greece and RomeIn ancient Greece and Rome an ambiguous relationship developed between man and nature, and this decisively determined the manner in which they treated the environment. On the one hand, nature was conceived as a space characterized and inhabited by divine powers, which deserved appropriate respect. On the other, a rationalist view emerged, according to which humans were to subdue nature using their technologies and to dispose of its resources. This book systematically describes the ways in which the Greeks and Romans intervened in the environment and thus traces the history of the tension between the exploitation of resources and the protection of nature, from early Greece to the period of late antiquity. At the same time it analyses the comprehensive opening up of the Mediterranean and the northern frontier regions, both for settlement and for economic activity. The book's level and approach make it highly accessible to students and non-specialists. |
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aediles agriculture ancient ancient Greece animals Antike antiquity approximately Aqua aqueducts areas Aristotle Athens Attica Augustus basic bean built Campania centre cereals chapter climate comprehensive countryside cultivated developed divine early earth earthquakes ecology Egypt Emperor environment environmental history epist eruption farming fifth century bc fire fish flooding forests fourth century bc garden Garnsey geographical gods Greece Greek groves Gulf of Naples Hellenistic Hippocr hist houses human humankind hunt imperial important included Italy land landscape Latium Laureion Loeb material Mediterranean Miletus mining modern Moreover Mountains nature olive particularly Peloponnese period Photo plants Plin Pliny the Elder Pliny the Younger Plut Pompeii primarily problems region river Roman Britain Roman Empire Rome rustica second century bc sediments seen settlement Sieferle southern Strab third century Thommen Tiber today’s trees urban Valley vegetables Vesuvius villa volcanic water supply wine Winiwarter wood Zeus