While UV rays can cause skin cancer, because skin cancer usually affects people after they have had children, it likely had little effect on the evolution of skin color because evolution favors changes that improve reproductive success.
The only problem was that I couldn't remember where I had heard that. In fact, I wasn't all that sure that I was right. I know that the Roman Empire lasted rougly 500 years but how about the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Ottomons, etc. I thought that it would be interesting to explore different empires and see how long they lasted. In another article, I talk about the definition of civilization..
Rome really came into prominence by becoming an empire after the second Punic war which ended in 201 BC. The date given for the fall of the western part of the empire is 476 Aâ¦D. So you could say that Rome ruled the western world for about 676 years. This is just a ball park figure because Rome had been expanding to an extent, before the Punic wars.