HISTORY: The Empire Stops Here: A Journey Along the Frontiers of the Roman Worldby Philip Parker, Johnathon Cape, 649pp, £25 IN THIS fraught period of history, when the EU, having recently expanded exponentially from its core area, is both contemplating further expansion and at the same time trying to decide where its boundaries can properly or safely be drawn, this remarkable book seems strangely apposite.
It is apposite because it is a study of the establishment, and the administration over a period of upwards of 400 years (and, in the case of the eastern empire, up to twice that) of a political system that stretched from Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England, via the Rhine and Danube rivers, from the shores of Holland to the Black Sea coast; then down eastern Turkey, Syria and Jordan to the Euphrates and the Arabian desert, and lastly along North Africa from Egypt to Morocco. All this vast area was administered without the benefit of modern communications, when an express letter to Rome from any frontier, even with the best roads and relays of expert post-horses, might take more than a month, and an army would take many times that. The EU is not aspiring, I hope, to take over the Middle East or north Africa (though Sarkozy seems to be showing some interest in that direction!), but there is still the unresolved question of Turkey, and we embrace now all of northeast Europe as well, where the Romans never chose to venture (even as they never took on Ireland) – and we have enough problems holding together, even with instant communications.
The book is remarkable because, besides being a learned study of the boundary areas of the Roman empire, it seems to have been something of a personal odyssey for the author, and a labour of love. In a series of expeditions, some undertaken in summer, some in winter, Parker appears to have tramped over much of this immense frontier, recording his immediate impressions, as well as distilling for us a vast amount of well-researched information both about the frontier forts and towns themselves, and about the history behind them, including many excursuses on various aspects of Roman life and customs.
What we end up with, in fact, is a history of the Roman empire, and of much of the Byzantine empire which followed it, from the slightly curious perspective of its frontiers. He begins on Hadrian's Wall, which he has clearly tramped most of. Right at the outset, he makes a nice point : the wall, unlike the Great Wall of China, for example, was not really designed for keeping barbarians out (and this goes equally well for the rest of the Roman frontier); it was rather for controllingaccess – like a modern frontier, indeed – and for at least slowing down and disrupting any violent incursion. A good deal of trade and other intercourse (recruiting auxiliary troops, for example) occurred over these frontiers.
However, enlightening insights of this sort are only one aspect of this book's value. What the more general reader will most enjoy is the succession of vignettes of his visits to scores of notable sites: Vindolanda, on Hadrian's Wall, where an extraordinary collection of letters from ordinary legionaries has been discovered; Xanten in Holland, the colonia Ulpia Traiana, beautifully preserved and restored; the great baths and the Porta Nigra at Trier; the largest public latrine in the Roman world at Rottenburg; the contrast between Vindobona (Vienna), which has been thoroughly built over, and neighbouring Carnuntum (Petronell), which hasn't; Tomis on the Black Sea, place of exile of the poet Ovid.
Then, over in Asia, the rock churches of Cappadocia and the great monument of Nemrud Dagh; the wonders of Dura Europos, Palmyra, and Petra – along with little hints of tension in his travels, as he has to negotiate the Turkish border with Armenia, or that with Syria further south (here begging comparison with that fine book of William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain). The enemy here for much of antiquity was Persia (or Parthia), but then, in the later seventh century there emerged from the desert the Arabs, united and galvanised by Islam, who swept all before them – but who proved much more tolerant masters to the local populations, in general, than the Byzantines.
And lastly, he sweeps through north Africa, taking in the great oasis settlements of Egypt, the fine remains of Cyrene in present-day Libya, and the magnificent Roman cities of the Maghreb, such as Thysdrus (El Djem), Thamugadi (Timgad) or Volubilis, along with excursions to such centres as Carthage or Algiers.
Throughout all this rambling, by means of a succession of well-placed digressions, Parker manages to give us a comprehensive picture of Roman history and culture with which to flesh out the ruins. It was a tremendous task that he set himself – few men, if any, ancient or modern, can have completed such a journey as he has – but he seems to have enjoyed himself immensely, and that comes through delightfully in these pages.
John Dillon is Regius Professor of Greek (Emeritus) in Trinity College Dublin, and author of, among other works, The Middle Platonists(1977, 2nd ed. 1996), The Heirs of Plato(2003), and Salt and Olives: Morality and Custom in Ancient Greece(2004)