Discovering Rome's eastern frontier : on foot through a vanished world /
"An account, primarily academic, of the eastern Roman frontier extending from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. This is the product of solo exploration of sensitive territory in challenging conditions over four decades, to dis...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
2021.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "An account, primarily academic, of the eastern Roman frontier extending from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. This is the product of solo exploration of sensitive territory in challenging conditions over four decades, to discover the material remains of Rome's last unexplored frontier. Barely visited and until now effectively unknown, it followed the Euphrates valley, passed over and through two great ranges, and penetrated the harsh mountains, 'cleansed' of Armenians and Greeks, of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea. From Trapezus a chain of forts stretched along the Pontic coast to the foothills of the Caucasus. The geographical framework introduces frontier installations as they occur: fortresses and forts, roads, bridges, signalling stations, and navigation of the Euphrates. It is illustrated with large-scale maps, observations of consuls and travellers, memories of Turkish and Kurdish villagers, notes and photographs of a way of life little changed since antiquity, and encounters with the modern world. The process of discovery was mainly on foot, with local guides and staying in villages, following ancient tracks, and conversing with great numbers of people - provincial and district governors, village elders and teachers, police and jandarma, farmers and shepherds, and everyone else. So there are encounters with treasure hunters and apparent bandits; arrests and death threats; Armenian massacres and crypto-Christians; memories of saints, caravans and the Russian advance in 1916; tensions between Kurds and Turks; the menace of the PKK; escorts and village guards; birds, bears and wild boars; rafts and fishing; earthquakes." -- |
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| Item Description: | Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on August 5, 2022). |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xliv, 534 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9780192655349 0192655345 9780191926051 0191926051 |