The eastern frontier of the Roman Empire extended from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. It followed the great Euphrates valley to penetrate the harsh mountains of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea, along the Pontic coast to the finally reach the foothills of the Caucasus. Though vast, this terrain has long remained one of the great gaps in our knowledge of the ancient world, barely visited and effectively unknown — until now. Here, Timothy Bruce Mitford offers an account of half a century of research and exploration over sensitive territory, in challenging conditions, to discover the material remains of Rome's last unexplored frontier. The geographical framework introduces frontier installations as they occur: fortresses and forts, roads, bridges, signalling stations, and navigation of the Euphrates. The journey is enriched with observations of consuls and travellers, memories of Turkish and Kurdish villagers, and notes and photographs of a way of life little changed since antiquity. The process of discovery was mainly on foot; staying in villages with local guides, following ancient tracks, and conversing with great numbers of people - provincial and district governors, village elders and teachers, police and jandarma, farmers and shepherds, and everyone in between. This came with its perils and pleasures; encounters with treasure hunters and apparent bandits, tales of saints and caravans, arrests and death threats, bears and wild boars, rafts and fishing, earthquakes, all amid the tumultuous events of the second half of the twentieth century. Richly illustrated with large-scale maps, photographs, and sketches, this is an account of travel and discovery, set against a background of a disappearing world encountered in the long process of academic exploration.

The eastern frontier of the Roman Empire extended from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. It followed the great Euphrates valley to penetrate the harsh mountains of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea, along the Pontic coast to the finally reach the foothills of the Caucasus. Though vast, this terrain has long remained one of the great gaps in our knowledge of the ancient world, barely visited and effectively unknown -- until now. Here, Timothy Bruce Mitford offers an account of half a century of research and exploration over sensitive territory, in challenging conditions, to discover the material remains of Rome's last unexplored frontier. The geographical framework introduces frontier installations as they occur: fortresses and forts, roads, bridges, signalling stations, and navigation of the Euphrates. The journey is enriched with observations of consuls and travellers, memories of Turkish and Kurdish villagers, and notes and photographs of a way of life little changed since antiquity. The process of discovery was mainly on foot; staying in villages with local guides, following ancient tracks, and conversing with great numbers of people - provincial and district governors, village elders and teachers, police and jandarma, farmers and shepherds, and everyone in between. This came with its perils and pleasures; encounters with treasure hunters and apparent bandits, tales of saints and caravans, arrests and death threats, bears and wild boars, rafts and fishing, earthquakes, all amid the tumultuous events of the second half of the twentieth century. Richly illustrated with large-scale maps, photographs, and sketches, this is an account of travel and discovery, set against a background of a disappearing world encountered in the long process of academic exploration.

When Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC after the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, its vast and mysterious frontier lands had an important impact on the commerce, politics and culture of the empire. This account - part history and part gazetteer -focuses on Rome's Egyptian frontier, describing the ancient fortresses, temples, settlements, quarries and aqueducts scattered throughout the region and conveying a sense of what life was like for its inhabitants. Robert Jackson has journeyed, by jeep and on foot, to virtually every known Roman site in the area, from Siwa Oasis, 45 kilometers from the modern Libyan border, to the Sudan. Drawing on both archaeological and historical information, he discusses these sites, explaining how Rome extracted exotic stone and precious metals from the mountains of the Eastern Desert, channelled the wealth of India and East Africa through the desert via ports on the Red Sea, constructed and manned fortresses in the distant oases of the Western Desert, and facilitated the expansion of agricultural communities in the desert that eventually experienced the earliest large-scale conversions to Christianity in Egypt. Illustrated with many photographs, the volume should be useful to archaeologists, classicists, and travellers to the region.

The north-eastern frontier of the Roman Empire - one of the great gaps in modern knowledge of the ancient world - has long eluded research. It has defied systematic exploration and been insulated against all but passing survey by wars, instability, political sensitivities, language, and the region's wild, remote mountains, mostly accessible only on horseback or on foot. Its path lay across eastern Turkey, following the Euphrates valley northwards from Syria, through gorges and across great ranges, and passing over the Pontic Alps to reach the further shores of the Black Sea. Vespasian established Rome's frontier against Armenia half a century before Hadrian's Wall. Five times as long, and climbing seven times as high, it was garrisoned ultimately by four legions and a large auxiliary army, stationed in intermediate forts linked by military roads. The two volumes of East of Asia Minor: Rome's Hidden Frontier - based on research, field work conducted largely on foot, and new discoveries - document the topography, monuments, inscriptions, and sighted coins of the frontier, looking in detail at strategic roads, bridges, forts, watch and signalling systems, and navigation of the Euphrates itself. Study of the terrain provides a foundation for interpreting the literary and epigraphic evidence for the frontier and its garrisons. Military activity, which extended to the Caucasus and the Caspian, is placed in the context of climate, geography, and inter-regional trade routes. 28 colour maps and over 350 photographs, plans, and travellers' sketches not only document the history of eastern Turkey as a frontier region of the Roman empire, but also reveal an ancient way of life, still preserved during the 1960s and 1970s, but now almost obliterated by the developments of the modern world.

Rome and the Worlds Beyond Its Frontiers examines interactions between those within and those beyond the boundaries of Rome, with an eye to the question of contested identities and identity formations.

A narrative history, with sourcebook, of the turbulent relations between Rome and the Sasanian Empire.

Studies the complex system of trade exchanges and commerce that profoundly changed Roman society.