You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The eastern frontier of the Roman Empire extended from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. It followed the great Euphrates valley to penetrate the harsh mountains of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea, along the Pontic coast to the finally reach the foothills of the Caucasus. Though vast, this terrain has long remained one of the great gaps in our knowledge of the ancient world, barely visited and effectively unknown -- until now. Here, Timothy Bruce Mitford offers an account of half a century of research and exploration over sensitive territory, in challenging conditions, to discover the material remains of Rome's last...
The north-eastern frontier of the Roman Empire - one of the great gaps in modern knowledge of the ancient world - has long eluded research. It has defied systematic exploration and been insulated against all but passing survey by wars, instability, political sensitivities, language, and the region's wild, remote mountains, mostly accessible only on horseback or on foot. Its path lay across eastern Turkey, following the Euphrates valley northwards from Syria, through gorges and across great ranges, and passing over the Pontic Alps to reach the further shores of the Black Sea. Vespasian established Rome's frontier against Armenia half a century before Hadrian's Wall. Five times as long, and cl...
The eastern frontier of the Roman Empire has long remained one of the great gaps in our knowledge of the ancient world, barely visited and effectively unknown -- until now. Timothy Bruce Mitford offers a richly illustrated account of half a century of academic exploration, travel, and discovery, set against a background of a disappearing world.
The focus of the book is a particular region of the Byzantine Empire, Cappadocia, within Anatolia, in the centre of what is now Turkey. Its history as a part of this confederation of territories coincides with the medieval period in Europe. This monograph deals with various aspects of the province; it begins with its environment and climate, goes to some of its institutions and buildings, and ends with the paintings which the art-ists employed to decorate the latter, as well as with a particular type of inscriptions (those along the frontiers). It also considers education in Cappadocia during the Byzantines. The study is a scholarly/professional work that draws on the author's current research as well as on the material which the author developed in the last four years while teaching for the University of Ox-ford.
This is the first book-length exploration of the ways art from the edges of the Roman Empire represented the future, examining visual representations of time and the role of artwork in Roman imperial systems. This book focuses on four kingdoms from across the empire: Cottius’s Alpine kingdom in the north, King Juba II’s Mauretania in the south-west, Herodian Judea in the east, and Kommagene to the north-east. Art from the imperial frontier is rarely considered through the lens of the aesthetics of time, and Roman provincial art and the monuments of allied rulers are typically interpreted as evidence of the interaction between Roman and local identities. In this interdisciplinary study, w...
This ancient Roman history examines the military campaigns of Justinian I, from army organization to tactics and strategy—with maps and battle diagrams. Justinian I was the last great Roman conqueror. Though he never led an army in person, his leadership dramatically increased the size of his realm. His long reign, from 527 to 565, was devoted to the renovatio imperii, or renovation of Empire. His will and vision drove the reconquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths, North Africa from the Vandals, and parts of Spain from the Visigoths. These grand schemes were largely accomplished through the services of two talented generals, Belisarius and Narses. They were successful in spite of concurrent wars against the Persians and the devastation caused by bubonic plague. In this comprehensive study, Michael Whitby draws on the full range of sources to examine all of Justinian's campaigns. Besides narrating the course and outcome of these wars, Whitby analyses the Roman army of the period, considering its equipment, organization, leadership, strategy and tactics, and considers the longer-term impact of Justinian’s military ventures on the stability of the empire.
A conference held under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, The Council for British Research in the Levant and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Liverpool The much-anticipated, two-volume proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan (September 2000). The 100 papers published here represent approximately two-thirds of the presentations made at this important event. The 'limits' of the discussions encompass (Volume I) General Themes, The Eastern Frontier, Rome and Parthia, The Anatolian Provinces and the Black Sea Region, North Africa, The Germanies, Early Roman Germany, (Volume II) The Danubian and Balkan Provinces, Dacia, The Spains, Britain, The Roman Army, Roman Fortifications, Fleets and Frontiers, and Documents and Archives.
This is the first thorough English commentary on the geographical books of Pliny the Elder, written in the AD 70s. Pliny's account is the longest in Latin, and represents the geographical knowledge of that era, when the Roman Empire was the dominant force in the Mediterranean world. The work serves both cultural and ideological functions: much of it is topographical, but it also demonstrates the political need to express a geographical basis for the importance of the Roman state. In five books, Pliny covers the entire world as it was known in his era and includes some of the first information on the extremities of the inhabited region, including Scandinavia and the Baltic, eastern Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The commentary provides a detailed analysis of all the points Pliny raises: his sources, toponyms, and understanding of the place of the earth in the cosmos.
The Wheel Spins is the novel about young and bright Iris Carr, who is on her way back to England after spending a holiday somewhere in the Balkans. After she is left alone by her friends, Iris catches the train for Trieste and finds company in Miss Froy, chatty elderly English woman. When she wakes up from a short nap, she discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is on the verge of her nerves. She is helped by a young English traveler, and the two proceed to search the train for clues to the old woman's disappearance. Ethel Lina White (1876-1944) was a British crime writer, best known for her novel The Wheel Spins, on which the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes, was based.