Depopulation

Ancient authors regularly refer to the phenomenon of depopulation, or population decline, in the ancient world. These authors place particular emphasis on changes in fertility behavior as a causal factor. Avoidance of marriage and childbearing for selfish reasons explained depopulation in Greece, according to Polybius (36.17.5f.). Depopulation in the Roman Empire motivated Augustus to introduce a number of legal reforms relating to marriage ( see Marriage Legislation of Augustus). Although a strand of scholarship has taken these references as accurate, and ancient concerns may, to some extent, have reflected reality (especially among elites), one should take into account that these remarks were as much a reflection of the authors' moral attitudes as they were of reality, associating moral or sociopolitical decay with demographic decline (cf. early modern Mercantilism).

Ancient history · Epistemology · Ethnology · Fertility · Geography · Legislation · Mercantilism · Phenomenon · Political science · Population · Roman Empire · Scholarship · Sociology · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy