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Nick Holmes is doing a very good job writing a clear beginning-level series on Roman history. This also has the advantage of being recent (2022), and so has access recent findings.

There is one short chapter two-thirds of the way through titled “Climate Change” which talks about what fairly recent research has to say about the Roman Climate Optimum from 200 BC to AD 150, and how it seems to have helped Rome’s rise, and how shifting climate trends after that added instability (he starts with a series of years where the Nile did not flood, or had a very weak flood in the 240s).

This was the highlight of the book for me, and if there’d been more chapters like it, I’d have been very happy with the book. However, it seems there are missed opportunities here. He talks about the Roman economy at times, and reference to The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean could have helped develop some arguments. That book has problems, but talking about the evident closing of the Iberian silver mines after the Antonine Plague would be valuable for Holmes’ discussion of the Roman economy.

At the same time, Holmes is wanting to make a specific argument, and I just didn’t feel like he ever got to really arguing it. A better feel for what he considers ‘revolutionary’, as opposed to ‘evolutionary’ would have helped (he doesn’t use the latter term; part of his trouble is a lack of contrast against his thesis). The idea seems to be that the Crisis of the Third Century left Rome in a vulnerable place, and the way out (at least the one taken) was the ‘revolutionary’ measure of converting the Empire from Ancient paganism to Christianity. But there’s not enough there on what that meant either.

Which is part of the other weakness: A real look at where Roman thought and culture had gone during the life of the Empire. He does address part of it, trying to unravel the rise of Christianity. But, he doesn’t look at the other side. From other books (I don’t remember which ones), it’s been argued that paganism had hit a dead-end, with it becoming slowly clearer to the educated that the myths and mysteries associated with the old cults had no reality behind them. And there was nothing really to put in it’s philosophical place. Other than those odd monotheists that is.

So, it’s not really the reassessment of the Third Century Holmes says it is, but it is very readable, and does a good job presenting… too long of a period in a very readable format. To give background, Holmes goes back to the mythical founding of Rome and gives a quick view of how it got to a Mediterranean empire. But that is a lot of ground to cover, and so takes up a fair chunk of the book, no matter how abbreviated it is.