An Earthquake That Shook the World: Seismicity and Society in the Late Fourth Century CE

A concentration of late fourth- and early fifth-century sources seem to suggest that a massive earthquake shook the eastern Mediterranean in the second half of the fourth century CE, precipitating a tsunami that reached as far as Croatia, Northwestern Greece, Libya, and Egypt. This earthquake is conventionally dated to the morning of July 21, 365 CE. However, this neat picture of a single, universally-destructive event is open to question, for it is difficult to resolve the textual, archaeological, and geological evidence for seismological activity in the second half of the fourth century into a single, coherent picture. This Great Lecture uses that data, instead, to explore late Roman society’s ‘culture of risk’-its strategies for understanding, mitigating, and exploiting the manifold uncertainties of the physical and metaphysical world.
Cam Grey, Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania

[@digabledoug]

If you're looking for a one time catastrophic tsunami that affects the whole eastern Mediterranean, I think somewhere in the area of Sicily would be ideal. A mega quake maybe would make a large tsunami but a collapse or massive landslide from the slopes of Mt. Etna into the sea would generate a huge tsunami directed outward toward the whole eastern Mediterranean with northwest Greece, the Gulf of Corinth and the Peloponnese, and Alexandria directly in its path. A tsunami generated that close would easily wrap around the heel of Italy and head directly for the coast of Croatia. Looking east a tsunami would have a clear path through the entire basin. Hitting Crete and the southern Cyclades, the Libyan and Egyptian coasts and straight into Alexandria before smashing into Cyprus, and the port cities of Israel and Lebanon.

[@Rossion64]

I was always interested that there doesn't seem to be large numbers of ancient sources that record tornadoes in the Graeco-Roman world, while they certainly occurred and they certainly would have been terrifying .Great lecture, thanks to you both

[@ian_b]

Is Steve locked in a broom cupboard?

[@chriss8474]

Thank you for sharing... Peace out!

[@Henrikbuitenhuis]

Thanks so much

[@richardkennedy8481]

8:34 "One earthquake that dates to 365 DE" What is DE?

[@jcra4195]

CE? What’s that dating system based on again? 🤔

[@AlwaysHopeful87]

Reading text?

[@pete4508]

I saw a theory about possible Earthquake Storms! Cluster earthquakes over time

[@StephanieSoressi]

I would rather not be read to... It would be so much more engaging for the lecture to be spontaneous, if from an outline.

[@amandab.recondwith8006]

Are you in a public restroom in Iraq? Pretty scary/shabby, mate.

[@elizabethford7263]

There is no excuse for such a poorly staged and filmed intro to lecture.