The Far Edges of the Known World By Dr Owen Rees
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Release date: 02-13-25
The Far Edges of the Known World By Dr Owen Rees AudioBook Summary
‘A tour of those far-flung places where Romans rarely dared to venture’ The Times
‘A strikingly original take . . . uncovering forgotten stories of life on the periphery’ Spectator
‘This is the book for expanding your ancient history horizon’ Tristan Hughes, host of ‘The Ancients’ podcast
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.
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