Did three consecutive droughts trigger the 367AD collapse in Roman Britain?

[Imperial Dave]

https://www.zmescience.com/science/history-articles/tree-climate-roman-britain-rep/

Interesting and highly plausible

[Jim Webster]

Yes very interesting

[CarlL]

Great find Dave.

One for Jim to mull over too in terms of impact of loss of agricultural production on a regimes capacity to retain order, control or wage war against invaders when the troops are perhaps on verge of starvation despite the usual place of privilege (as mainstay of the political elites power).

A chance card(S) to add to campaign based gaming!?

CarlL

[Keraunos]

Intriguing.  I would note the various corn-dryers that have been found on late Roman farming sites in Britain, not least by the Hertford Museum rescue archaeology team of which I was briefly a part in the late 70's.  These were assumed to have been associated with an increasingly cold, wetter climate, requiring special measures to protect the harvested grain.  So, short term drought triggering crisis in 367 but an underlying trend that was reducing the overall agricultural capacity and sustainability of the economy as well?

[Jim Webster]

Great find Dave.

One for Jim to mull over too in terms of impact of loss of agricultural production on a regimes capacity to retain order, control or wage war against invaders when the troops are perhaps on verge of starvation despite the usual place of privilege (as mainstay of the political elites power).

A chance card(S) to add to campaign based gaming!?



CarlL

Normally when you get successive years then there is a more underlying cause. I wondered about volcanic impact but according to Google AI "Based on recent ice core and tree-ring data, the 4th century AD (300-399 AD) was relatively quiet in terms of massive global volcanic disruptions compared to the later 6th-century eruptions"


We are at the end of the Roman warm period  (nice video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79P8bDGfbNA

Personally I think that if you're looking at a historical period then you should work within the weather parameters of the period. (So the players have a range of 'normal weather' that they are used to working with, with a rare chance of something a bit worse)
So with WW2 games, you ought to allow for particularly bad winters. For the late 4th century then I think you would have to allow for this sort of drought.
I would actually go for dice rather than cards. So if you get an extreme 'weather event' you can roll for the following year with a higher probability. For a third year perhaps the high probability could continue, but for subsequent years the probability could tail off.
Or something like that 

[Imperial Dave]

I may use this for my DA campaign i am slow cooking