Managing the Roman Empire for the long term: risk assessment and management 
policy in the fifth to seventh centuries

Haldon, John; Eton, Hugh; Izdebski, Adam

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-94137-6_16

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Managing the Roman Empire for the long term: risk assessment and management policy in the fifth to seventh centuries

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Izdebski, Adam
Palaeo-Science and History, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society;

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Haldon, J., Eton, H., & Izdebski, A. (2022). Managing the Roman Empire for the long term: risk assessment and management policy in the fifth to seventh centuries. In A. Izdebski, J. Haldon, & P. Filipkowski (Eds.), Perspectives on public policy in societal-environmental crises: what the future needs from history (1, pp. 237-246). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-94137-6_16.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000A-BFB7-1

Abstract

This chapter analyses the reasons for the survival of the eastern Roman state from three different but complementary angles: imperial administration, the environmental conditions impacting land-use for the period, and the ability of the state to leverage resources. We conclude that a major contributory factor in survival was the effective use of natural resources and a self-reinforcing social-ecological system through which the state and its elites and infrastructure facilitated the survival of landscapes, generating the resources necessary for the state’s continued existence. In areas where this broke down—as in the western part of the empire—the Roman state in the long term disappeared.