Rome and Its Frontiers ─ The Dynamics of Empire

Rome and its Frontiers: The Dynamics of Empire is a collection of ten important essays by C.R. Whittaker, several of them published here for the first time, engaging with contemporary debates and controversies surrounding the Roman frontiers and the concept ofempire. Roman relations with their neighbours and those they dominated represent one of the keys to understanding the nature of Roman rule. Each essay presents a different aspect of frontier scholarship, with chapters covering the barbarian invasions in the later Roman empire, the social and sexual life of soldiers on the frontiers, the practicalities of supplying the army at frontier settlements and the wider issues of migration, geography and identity. Traditional theories of Roman frontiers have interacted with experience of other frontiers in history to change the very idea of what is meant by a frontier.

These papers, by a leading authority on the Roman frontiers, range geographically from Britain and Europe to Africa, India and the Far East. Each of them sheds new light on the significance of the frontiers, and adds to our understanding of the way that the Romans perceived the world within and beyond the boundaries.

C.R. Whittaker is a fellow of Churchill College Cambridge, and a former University Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Cambridge.