Did a single massive earthquake truly devastate the eastern Mediterranean in 365 CE?
In short: Historians and geologists often point to a cataclysmic earthquake on July 21, 365 CE, as a singular, region-wide disaster. This lecture examines why the evidence is far more complex and what the event reveals about how late Roman society navigated uncertainty.
While historical and geological sources suggest a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the eastern Mediterranean in the late fourth century, the narrative of a single, universally destructive event is debated. Evidence from the period, including reports of a tsunami reaching as far as Libya, Egypt, Croatia, and Northwestern Greece, remains difficult to reconcile into one coherent timeline.
Cam Grey of the University of Pennsylvania uses this seismological data to investigate the 'culture of risk' in late Roman society. Rather than focusing solely on the physical destruction, the lecture explores how people of the time interpreted, mitigated, and even exploited the metaphysical and physical uncertainties of their world.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: An Earthquake That Shook the World: Seismicity and Society in the Late Fourth Century CE
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