Are there any ancient sources clearly testifying a frozen Tiber river in the year 398, 396, 271, and 177 BCE?
Upvote:15
398 BC
Livy, when writing about the siege of Veii in 398 BC in History of Rome: Book 5, says:
The year was remarkable for such a cold and snowy winter that the roads were blocked and the Tiber rendered unnavigable.
Source: Book 5: The Veii and the Destruction of Rome by the Gauls
396 BC
Lamb may have copied a mistake here and got two dates (398 BC and 396 BC) out of one (398). Livy certainly makes no mention of a harsh winter in 396 BC but The Tiber and its tributaries by S. A. Smith (1877) says that he does. The Consular Tribunes given by Livy, as well as the flow of the historical narrative, clearly indicate that the Tiber froze around 2 years before the final defeat of the Veii, which is dated to 396 BC.
271 BC
This may well be another mistake and should probably be 271 AD, not BC. A couple sources give 271 AD, for example:
271 A.D. Of Rome in 484, or in the year 271 of the Christian era, the winter was so severe, that the snow covered the square in Rome, Italy to a height of several feet for 40 days.
Source: James A. Marusek, 'A Chronological Listing of Early Weather Events' (2010)
Unfortunately, the source for this is not a primary one but an 1826 tome Filosofia della Statistica esposta da Melchiorre Gioja, Tomo Primo (Milan). The earliest source may be St. Augustine (354 - 430 AD) who mentions the Tiber freezing over during the Pyrrhic War which lasted from 280 to 275 BC. St. Augustine doesn't give a specific date, though. In Book 3 Chapter 17 of City of God, "a book of Christian philosophy" he wrote:
Then what shall I say of that memorable winter in which the weather was so incredibly severe, that in the Forum frightfully deep snow lay for forty days together, and the Tiber was frozen? Had such things happened in our time, what accusations we should have heard from our enemies!
For the other date mentioned by Lamb (177 BC), I have found no specific reference but several ancient sources mention or allude to the Tiber freezing over on several occasions.
Juvenal (circa. 55 to circa. 138 AD) alludes to the Tiber being frozen in his Satires. In Book II, Satire 6 he writes:
...In winter she will go down to the river of a morning, break the ice, and plunge three times into the Tiber, dipping her trembling head in its whirling waters...
Paul Reiter, in Climate Change and Mosquito-Borne Disease (pdf) gives a broader picture of climate change in the Mediterranean region, also mentioning the role of science:
Contemporary accounts together with fossil and other evidence suggest that a gradual warming and drying occurred in the Mediterranean region throughout classical times until about A.D. 400 (2). Landscape studies suggest a gradual rise in sea level over this period. Around 300 B.C., beech trees (genus Fagus) grew in Rome, the Tiber River froze in winter, and snow lay for many days.
Your source also mentions the Tiber flooding; this is well-attested to in, for example, The Annals of Tacitus and in Livy's History of Rome.
More post
- 📝 Is the enforcement of Hijab wearing for Muslim women a recent occurrence?
- 📝 How did smaller feudal vassal realms survive a war or raid?
- 📝 Why were the Allies so much better cryptanalysts?
- 📝 Why were there "Tributary States" to the Ottoman Empire?
- 📝 What was Gen. Buford's ultimate objective at the Battle of Gettysburg?
- 📝 Where does the name of the country "Belarus" come from?
- 📝 Why did the USSR give Crimea to Ukraine?
- 📝 What was it like for German Jews after WWII?
- 📝 Where is (or was) the biggest medieval drawbridge?
- 📝 Does anyone have a concrete example of the British Empire using revolution to gain control over foreign resources, governments?
- 📝 What, if anything, did Hitler think of the Canadian government's treatment of the Native Americans?
- 📝 Before the Great War, was the word "Poland" typically used to refer only to the Russian partition of Poland?
- 📝 Why is the storming of the Bastille considered the start of revolution, and not the storming of the Hôtel des Invalides?
- 📝 When was grass seed first imported specifically for aesthetic reasons?
- 📝 Are there equivalents of the Domesday Book for other (French or German) duchies?
- 📝 What is the oldest road in the world that has been in continuous use?
- 📝 What was the goal of Nicolas de Larmessin etched pictures of artisans?
- 📝 What did it mean to be a Grecian in late-18th Century British schools?
- 📝 What was the largest battle fought by ancient Rome?
- 📝 What are the historical reasons for the conventional map orientation?
- 📝 Has there ever been a month with 32 days?
- 📝 End of WWII: potential U.S. atomic bomb production rate
- 📝 What was the reason for the geographical error in Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech 5th March 1946?
- 📝 Did ancient people regularly suffer from colds?
- 📝 When did Herod the Great die?
- 📝 Why did Emperor Nero kill his mother and others?
- 📝 Were the 1940-42 RAF bombing raids over Germany unescorted?
- 📝 What relation do the early sexual experiences of Lolita and her classmates bear to the real experience of children in New England in 1947?
- 📝 When was the first intentional ricochet fired from a naval artillery?
- 📝 Why Italy during the interwar years and ww2 didn't devote adequate resources to develop weapons against armored fight vehicles (AFVs) including tanks?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Are there any ancient sources clearly testifying a frozen Tiber river in the year 398, 396, 271, and 177 BCE?
- 📝 Are there any historical sources that support the claim that ancient high-speed archers held multiple arrows in their hand?
- 📝 Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
- 📝 Are there any independent historical records of ancient Persia allowing freedom of worship for the Jews?
- 📝 Are there any good sources on the history of the name for Kazakhstan?
- 📝 Are there any records of ancient people looking for the misdirect in a prophecy?
- 📝 Are there any Ancient Greek texts showing concern for the fate of their slaves?
- 📝 Are there any Midas portraits from the ancient era?
- 📝 Are there any primary sources on the letter Hulagu wrote to Qutuz?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 What are some Chinese sources testifying the extreme weather events of 535-536 CE?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Are there ancient historical sources which have been permanently lost?
- 📝 Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?
- 📝 What (primary) sources are there on the life of female slaves in Classical Greece, more specifically Athens?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Are there any ideas as to what the English landscape was like before the arrival of the Angles?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of German junior enlisted soldiers surviving the siege of Stalingrad and subsequent captivity?
- 📝 Is there any verifiable ancient source for the etymology of βάρβαρος?
- 📝 Are there any remaining existant texts that describe the styles and techniques of Medieval European swordsmanship?
- 📝 Are there any exemplars of the 'trope of the exiled poet' prior to CE 8?
- 📝 Are there any other "Delphic Temple"-like sites in the world?
- 📝 Why are there shields present on the sides of Henry VIII ships, did they serve any function or was it pure decoration?
- 📝 Are there any antisemitic caricatures from France during the interwar period?
- 📝 Are there registers of the scores and participation in ancient Olympic games?
- 📝 Are there any archeological finds or primary source drawings of the Chinese "blade shaped" bamboo-copter or rotary fans?
- 📝 Are there sources that record ancient women in patriarchal societies' thoughts about patriarchy?
- 📝 Are there any secular accounts of the Sadduccees?
- 📝 Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?