A View of Population Growth Cira A.D. 200

Attention is directed to the citation and translation of a short passage that represents the very first mention of resources or the environment having an impact on population growth in the writings of Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus around the year A.D. 200. Tertullianus wrote in De Anima onerosi sumus mundo or is burdensome to the world. A lengthy paragraph is translated on the balance between life and death. The motivation for the treatise on population came from Tertullianuss interest in rebutting the Pythagorean notions that the souls of the living come from the dead or that the number of living and dead must be constant. The proof that this was not the case comes from the evidence that man has gradually increased its population numbers. These excess people migrate or are cast out to settle in other regions. There is evidence that the earth has been developed and cultivated by man to a greater extent than in earlier times. When there was forest there is now plowed fields; empty spaces have been taken over for farmland. Cities have been formed from land that held just a cluster of huts. Resources have not been in sufficient abundance to satisfy the needs of all. People are aware of and complaining about the lack of sufficient resources. The remedy for nations is disease hunger war and natural disaster. The writing is brief and informal which suggests that the notion of population pressure on resources could be easily understood by the population 1800 years ago. There is a lack of authoritative citation. There is mention of commentaries of ancient times which is reference to the fragmented writings of Varro (116-117 B.C.). The writings of Varro surviving today do not refer to demographic topics. Plato and Aristotle are mentioned in Nathan Keyfitzs writings on early population theorists but not Tertullianus. Platos discourses were on desired size of cities or city-states such that populations would be politically powerful enough to defend themselves and small enough to function effectively. Aristotle was concerned with the regulation of population size in an ideal city. These early writings are evidence that concern about the effects of population growth on the environment are not bound by geography culture or time.