Natural disasters in the history of the eastern Turk empire

This article analyzes the effect of climate extremes on the historical processes that took place (AD 536, 581, 601, 626 and 679) in the Eastern Turk Empire (AD 534–745) in Inner Asia. Climate extremes are sharp, strong and sometimes protracted periods of cooling and drought caused by volcanic eruptions that in this case resulted in a negative effect on the economy of a nomadic society and were often accompanied by famine and illness. In fact, many of these natural catastrophes coincided with the Black Death pandemics among the Eastern Turks and the Chinese living in the north of China. The Turk Empire can be split into several chronological periods during which significant events that led to changes in the course of history of the nomadic state took place: AD 534–545—the rise of the Turk Empire; AD 581–583—the division of the Turk Empire into theWestern and the Eastern Empires; AD 601–603—the rise of Qimin Qaghan; AD 627–630—the Eastern Turks are conquered by China; AD 679–687—the second rise of the Eastern Turk Empire. The research shows that there is clearly-discernable interplay between important historical events and climate extremes in the history of the Turk Empire. This interplay has led us to the conclusion that the climatic factor did have an impact on the historical processes that took place in the eastern part of Inner Asia, especially on the territories with a nomadic economy. © The Author(s) 2019

De aedificiis libri sex, Parigi 1537

Edizione digitale in pdf del De aedificiis di Procopio di Cesarea, nella prima traduzione latina (Parigi, 1537), con introduzione storica di C. Occhipint

Images of weakness and the fall of Rome – an analysis of reputation management’s impact on political history

It will be argued that PR may constitute an interpretative tool when exploring the causes of and reasons for what Peter Heather calls the most dramatic event in ancient history: the decline and ultimate collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The appearance of the Goths at the Danubian border leading to the devastating defeat of the imperial army at Adrianople in 378 was the most visible incident in a chain of events that within a century led to the forced abdication of the last West Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476. This article does not give a detailed and chronological account of events that have been related by historians of antiquity. Instead, it presents the concept of reputation and critiques both its political significance and its potential to offer an alternative answer to the question of why Rome fell