As the Nostradamus of the game, let me impart my wisdom… The main issue wasn’t the Rats and the aggressions, but the fact that your civilization had corruption from turns 4 through 7. I understand that some games go better than others, and I’ve ran into issues when I’ve chose to build Silk Road, but 4 turns in a row of corruption is generally always going to be game over. Taking Alchemy and upgrading your 1 Philosophy was also probably not ideal, because you were sitting on a lot of food, and you could just add a population and build a second Philosophy instead. You save 4 science and leave yourself less susceptible to Rats.
Lastly, just because you can seed an Event, doesn’t mean that you should. Cards like Vast Territory I are too powerful to just seed blindly without a plan to ensure that you can win the territory. The yet unseen event you seeded that triggered the Rats was also questionable (even more so to risk Rats with so much food). Before I seed an event, I try to see it could trigger something that would wreck me. Rats and Dark Ages are the biggest culprits, but I will generally pass on playing an event if those are serious risks.