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The climate of Ancient Rome varied throughout the existence of that civilization. In the first half of the 1st millennium BC the climate of Italy was more humid and cool than now and the presently arid south saw more precipitation. The northern regions were situated in the temperate climate zone, while the rest of Italy was in the subtropics, having a warm and mild climate.〔 During the annual melt of the mountain snow even small rivers would overflow, swamping the terrain (Tuscany and the Pontine Marshes were deemed impassable in antiquity).〔 The existence of Roman civilization (including the Eastern Roman Empire) spanned three climatological periods: Early Subatlantic (900 BC–175 AD), Mid-Subatlantic (175–750) and Late Subatlantic (since 750). The written, archaeological and natural-scientific proxy evidence independently but consistently shows that during the period of the Roman Empire's maximum expansion and final crisis the climate underwent changes. The Empire's greatest extent under Trajan coincided with the so-called Roman climatic optimum. The climate change occurred at different rates, from apparent near stasis during the early Empire to rapid fluctuations during the late Empire.〔 Still, there is some controversy in the notion of a generally moister period in the eastern Mediterranean in AD–600 AD due to conflicting publications. ==Stable Climate== Throughout the entire Roman Kingdom and the Republic there has been the so-called Subatlantic period, in which the Greek and Etruscan city-states also developed. It was characterized by cool summers and mild, rainy winters.〔 At the same time there were a number of severe winters, including the complete freezing of the Tiber in 398 BC, 396 BC, 271 BC and 177 BC. In subsequent centuries the reports of occasional harsh winters became associated with flooding rather than ice on Tiber.〔 Evidence for a cooler Mediterranean climate in 600 BC–100 BC comes from remains of ancient harbors at Naples and in the Adriatic which are located about one meter below current water level. Edward Gibbon, citing ancient sources, thought that the Rhine and the Danube were frequently frozen, facilitating the invasion of barbarian armies into the Empire "over a vast and solid bridge of ice". Suggesting colder climate, Gibbon also contended that during Caesar's time the reindeer were commonly found in the forests of modern Poland and Germany, whereas in his time the reindeer were not observed south of the Baltic.〔 During the reign of Augustus the climate became warmer and the aridity in North Africa persisted. The biotopes of ''Heterogaster urticae'', which in Roman times occurred far north than in the 1950s, suggest that in the early Empire mean July temperatures were at least 1 °C above those of the mid-20th-century.〔 Pliny the Younger wrote that wine and olives were cultivated in more northerly parts of Italy than in the previous centuries,〔 as did Saserna in the last century BC (both father and son).〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Climate of Ancient Rome」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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