This lecture presents a demographic profile of the city of Rome in the fourth century CE. It has long been espoused that beginning in the mid-third century and extending into the fourth CE, Rome's population began a gradual but inexorable decline. The statement has become so solidified in scholarly discourse that it is often repeated uncritically as if a certainty. According to this view, two exogenous shocks to the empire’s population, triggered by high-mortality pandemics, caused large-scale demographic disruptions from which the city of Rome never recovered. I argue, to the contrary, that the evidence we do have is more consistent with a high population count in the fourth century. More importantly, the same evidence also suggests an increase in the size of certain sections of the population. This lecture then will offer a critical reassessment of prevailing scholarly opinion and, in the process, demonstrate how by studying institutional change alongside disease regimes, food supply, and fiscal structures, we can illuminate socio-economic and demographic aspects of historical populations.

Dr. John Fabiano
PhD, University of Toronto

Lecturer, Dept. of Classics, University of Toronto