This column’s title is borrowed from Edward Gibbons’ epic tome "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," written in 1776. I ...

Hussain Didi via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0 Did lead poisoning contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? It’s a question historians have long debated, since the Romans sweetened ...

A recent study challenges conventional ideas about the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire. Contrary to popular belief, natural disasters and epidemics may not have been the main causes of the decline ...

Grass-covered mounds mark the site of the Roman-era lead mine at Charterhouse on Mendip in the United Kingdom (Credit: Andrew Wilson) It’s perhaps historically appropriate that the word “ironic” ...

The use of large datasets from vast territories previously ruled by the Roman Empire presents a different scenario. Our findings reveal that there was no decline in the 6th century, but rather a ...

What does it say about a society when its scholars turn increasingly to studies of the downfall of civilizations, the end of empires, the concept of human ...

The new research adds context to a long-standing debate about the role lead pollution and poisoning may have played in the collapse of the Roman Empire. Some historians have argued that Roman ...

The study also could add fuel to a fraught and long-standing debate about whether mass lead poisoning could have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. “Ancient texts and archaeological ...

Suggestions have emerged in recent decades that attribute the rise and fall of ancient empires such as the Roman Empire to climate change and disease. This has prompted discussions over whether “536 ...

Atmospheric lead pollution likely caused cognitive decline among citizens of the Roman Empire, according to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers used advanced atmospheric modeling to correlate lead levels in the Arctic with historical mining activities, further substantiating the link between industrial emissions and cognitive ...