…where today there are howling deserts, some of the most extreme deserts in the world, the Sahara. As recently as Roman times, Pliny called the Sahara the breadbasket of Rome. That's only 2,000 years ago. 7,000 years ago, it was a grassland cut by many…

…exactly. There seem to be notable exceptions to this where we don't quite understand what's happening. For instance, the roman historian Pliny Describes roman wines so strong that when they were thrown onto fires they burned. This seems to indicate some kind…

…tried and true Christianity. What does that mean? A delusion grows more real over time. That's a peculiar notion. You know Pliny the younger there's a fascinating book published in the last couple of years called the Christians as the romans saw them…

…translates the early texts of the roman imperium as it slowly became aware that this strange phenomenon was in its midst. And Pliny the younger not the naturalist who was the elder, but Pliny the younger was appointed governor of Armenia and his job was…

…slowly became aware that this strange phenomenon was in its midst. And Pliny the younger not the naturalist who was the elder, but Pliny the younger was appointed governor of Armenia and his job was to go out there and administer roman law and so forth…

…and the emperor was quite interested and wrote back and said: tell me more. And he said: is this a new religion? And Pliny the younger wrote and he said: no this is not a religion. Religions are concerned with the great issues of cosmic fate and…

…Africa where today there are howling deserts some of the most extreme deserts in the world the Sahara. As recently as roman Times, Pliny called the Sahara the breadbasket of Rome. That's only 2 000 years ago. 7 000 years ago it was a grassland cut by…

…than that but the documentation? It is well known that the Sahara was wetter in the past, even as recently as roman times. Pliny called it the breadbasket of Rome and we know that human populations were out there. We in the Thessaly Plateau of Southern…

…the next million and a half years Africa grows progressively drier, not desert. It was not even desert as recently as roman times. Pliny Describes the Sahara desert as the breadbasket of Rome but over a million and a half years Africa grew drier and the…

…what is now the Sahara desert was a veld of grassland throughout prehistory, as late as roman times. The roman historian Pliny referred to North Africa as the breadbasket of Rome. It means that climatologically it was entirely different and in that African…

…more dry and has experienced fluctuations of aridity. Nevertheless as recently as uh two thousand years ago the roman historian Pliny called North Africa the breadbasket of Rome because wheat was being grown over thousands and thousands of acres. Now it's…

…rather dramatically. These ice cores coming out of Iceland make this clear. Nevertheless as late as roman times, the roman historian Pliny referred to North Africa as the breadbasket of Rome because they were growing wheat in vast amounts in North Africa as…