The Far Edges of the Known World

What was it like to live on the edges of ancient empires, at the boundaries of the known world?

When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his new bleak and barbarous surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of his world was where civilisation ceased to exist. Our fascination with the Greek and Roman world, and the abundance of writing that we have from it, means that we usually explore the ancient world from this perspective too. Was Ovid's exile really as bad as he claimed? What was it truly like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?

Thanks to archaeological excavations, we now know that the borders of the empires we consider the 'heart' of civilisation were in fact thriving, vibrant cultures - just not ones we might expect. This is where the boundaries of 'civilised' and 'barbarians' began to dissipate; where the rules didn't always apply; where normally juxtaposed cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities.

Taking us along the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from Co-Loa in the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian's Wall, Owen Rees explores the powerful empires and diverse peoples in Europe, Asia and Africa beyond the reaches of Greece and Rome. In doing so, he offers us a new, brilliantly rich lens with which to understand the ancient world.

Review

This is the book for expanding your ancient history horizon. Owen Rees skilfully brings little known places filled with amazing ancient history away from the periphery and into the spotlight -- TRISTAN HUGHES, host of The Ancients podcast

A wide-ranging tour of the fringes of the ancient world -- Patrick Kidd ― THE TIMES

A notable recent trend in popular history is the revival of interest in the ancient world . Now Owen Rees joins the merry band with a strikingly original take on the subject . Rees relies significantly on archaeological evidence that has emerged only recently. His exploration of the outer fringes of empire, beneath the notice of what he calls 'spoilt aristocrats' like Ovid, is nothing if not wide-ranging. In his uncovering of forgotten stories of life on the periphery, he roams from the empty northern uplands of Hadrian's Wall, the chilly mileposts where Roman African legionaries shivered and grumbled, to the ruins of Volubilis in the burning Moroccan desert -- Nigel Jones ― SPECTATOR

This refreshingly original tour of the ancient world's lesser-known locales challenges readers to imagine familiar stories from the other side for a change . . . By highlighting how cultural partisans of the past shaped how history was told, Rees aims to help readers see beyond the stereotyping that bluntly divided the ancient world into tidy categories such as civilised and uncivilised, citizen and barbarian. His book is a reminder that while neatly defined narratives may seem appealing, the truth is rarely so straightforward -- Michael Patrick Brady ― WALL STREET JOURNAL

A true tour of horizons, the ancients' and our own. Exploring ancient worlds beyond Greece and Rome, Owen Rees illuminates the dimmer corners of the Mediterranean as well as societies on other sands and seas, from Kenya to Ukraine. Fascinating questions arise: When is a border a boundary? When is a site a city? And when are people 'classics'? -- JOSEPHINE QUINN, author of How the World Made the West

In this path-breaking and vital book, Owen Rees opens new perspectives on ancient history, exploring nomadic and settled cultures that flourished beyond the 'civilized' epicenters of Greece and Rome, to reveal surprising connections, from Hadrian's Wall and the Scythian steppes to Africa's Rift Valley, the Khyber Pass, and Southeast Asia -- ADRIENNE MAYOR, author of The Amazons

This is a powerful and wide-ranging account of life at the edges of the known world ... From Hadrian's Wall to Co Loa in Vietnam and the Christian town of Aksum in Ethiopia, Rees takes us on a journey of discovery that never fails to be engaging ... A natural storyteller -- HELEN KING, author of Immaculate Forms

A blast of fresh air, presenting a perspective on cultural history that is breathtaking in its scope ... an indispensable guide to our shared past -- JANE DRAYCOTT, author of Cleopatra's Daughter

Fascinating. An interesting, and unique, exploration of aspects and areas at the periphery or edge of the "traditional" ancient world which are often omitted or overlooked by the standard histories. From Lake Turkana and Megiddo to Aksum and Taxila, this is a volume well worth your time and attention! -- ERIC CLINE, author of 1177 B.C.

A transformative portrayal of the ancient world, seen not from its centre but its margins ... Owen Rees' remarkable narrative invites the so-called barbarians to gaze back at the Greeks and Romans, and to place the truth of their own civilizations in opposition to the well-known stereotypes ... Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the city-states and empires of the ancient Mediterranean fit into a global history -- CATHERINE FLETCHER, author of The Roads to Rome

About the Author

Owen Rees is an interdisciplinary researcher at Birmingham Newman University with a core specialism in ancient history. He studied at the universities of Reading and Nottingham before completing his PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2018. Previously, Owen held postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute of Medical Humanities at the University of Durham, and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Nottingham. Owen is also the founder and lead editor of badancient.com, which brings together a growing network of specialists to fact-check common claims made about the ancient world.