The Far Edges of the Known World (eBook)

Life Beyond the Borders of Ancient Civilization

Owen Rees (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
400 Seiten
W. W. Norton & Company (Verlag)
9781324036531 (ISBN)

Infos

A revisionist history of the ancient world that shifts our focus from Athens and Rome to the long-ignored societies on the borders.When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his bleak and barbarous new surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of his world was where civilization ceased to exist. Our own fascination with the Greek and Roman world has for centuries followed this perspective, shrouding cultures at the far reaches of their influence in myth. But what was it like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?In The Far Edges of the Known World, ancient historian Owen Rees draws on archaeological excavations to reveal these so-called borders as thriving multicultural spaces. This is where the boundaries of civilized and barbarian began to dissipate; where traditional rules didnt always apply; where different cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities. Transporting readers through historical spheres of influence, Rees journeys from the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrians Wall. Beyond well-remembered figures like Cleopatra and Caesar, Rees introduces us to the everyday people who called the borderlands home. We meet an enterprising sex worker in Egypts Naucratis, gambling soldiers at Hadrians Wall in England, a Greco-Buddhist monk hailing from the Ganges, and more. As Rees shows, exchanges of trends, ideas, even religious practices were happening all over the world.The Far Edges of the Known World offers us a vibrant new lens to see and understand the ancient world.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.9.2025
• Zusatzinfo: 12 maps, 16 pages of color illustrations
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Schlagworte: Ancient Egypt • Ancient Greece • Barbarian • Cultural Exchange • England • Ethiopia • France • Hadrians Wall • Israel • Kenya • Morocco • national borders • Nomads • Pakistan • Prehistory • Roman Empire • Sudan • Ukraine • Vietnam
• ISBN-13: 9781324036531 / 9781324036531