Was there any awareness of environmental problems among intellectuals
and politicians of the ancient world? Did they even have notions of
'pollution', 'exploitation', and 'depletion' of natural resources? And
what forms did human action take for the protection of the environment?
The authors - from the fields of Ancient History, Classical Archeology,
Ancient Laws, and History of Medicine - focus on the environmental and
ecological awareness in the ancient world, both in material evidence of
daily life and in the intellectual thought. They analyse if there was a
common awareness of environmental and ecological questions, or if there
were only a few and isolated measures aimed at the interest of special
social groups and at specific political goals. They discuss to which
extent the ancient evidence can be used to identify the roots of modern
environmental sensitivity.