A Systems Approach to the Study of the Collapse of the Western Roman Empire

The collapse of the Western Roman Empire has long been a subject of scholarly research and of public interest. Yet, the exact causes behind the collapse still elude us. Famously, Alexander Demandt enumerated 210 different collapse causes from published literature. In revisiting this topic, we employ a multivariate approach based on complex systems theory that considers the interactions among various human-environmental sub-systems (e.g. socio-economic, political, cultural, technological, environmental, and climatic). To characterize past systems we collect and standardize previously published data plus carry out new data collections. Novel modelling methods for the study of historical causation will be applied to amassed data. In the future, we plan to employ similar approaches in the study of other past societies.