For the whole of antiquity there are numerous reports of natural catastrophes (NC). Especially in the eastern Mediterranean, but also in Italy, tectonic conditions resulted in an extraordinary susceptibility for frequently disastrous seismic activity (earthquakes and resulting tsunami, volcanic eruptions). The ancient perception was that phenomena such as storms, epidemics, rains of stones, comets (Cic. Nat. deor. 2,14) and solar and lunar eclipses (e.g. Plut. Nicias 23; Eclipses) were also in the category of NC.
Earthquakes (cf. map) again and again led…