Environmental Thought in Antiquity

      In the reading "medieval attitudes" I thought it was interesting that the author discussed the many religions and cultures that actively promoted virginity and suppression of sexual desire because they were increasingly worried about the growth in population. I thought this was particularly interesting in the case of the Romans who the author notes suffered from "penuria hominum" or shortage of men. In the Mary Beard video, we learned all about how the Roman empire sought to project permanence and power through architectural innovations and military conquests, but she did not go into detail about the actual makeup of the Roman population. 

      Because I watched the video first it never occurred to me that there were pagan priests within the Roman empire that were actively encouraging men and women against marriage. Therefore it starts to make sense that the Romans not only wanted to project power and permanence through architecture but also through the communities that they conquered as well. By claiming these cities and spaces as Roman they physically expanded their empire without causing deliberate mass overpopulation. Though there was overpopulation in their cities, as evidenced by the data gathered about medieval Italian cities stemming from sources of Roman wealth and power, the Romans actively tried to stop overpopulation and the lack of natural resources it would cause. Having never thought about the Romans in this context it was fascinating to see how shifting ideologies about nature influenced empires in different ways.