The Reach of Rome: A History of the Roman Imperial Frontier 1St-5Th Centuries AD

Traces the history of the Roman Empire's boundary which ran for roughly 4,000 miles from Britain to Morocco via the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, the Syrian Desert, and the Saharan fringes

In a distinctive and lucidly reasoned contribution to classical scholarship, freelancer Williams traces the military history of the moenia mundi (the world's walls) encircling the Roman Empire, which made possible the long pax Romana of the ancient world. The conquests of Pompey and Julius Caesar had expanded the boundaries of Roman imperium widely by the death of Caesar in 44 b.c. As the author tells it, military frontiers were conceived in the days of the Roman republic as launching posts for military excursions rather than as static positions for protecting the fruits of past conquests. However, soon after his accession as the first emperor in 27 b.c. following a sanguinary civil war, Augustus mandated the deployment of Roman soldiers in defensive garrisons along the far-flung perimeter of the empire. According to Williams, Augustus may have done this in order to maximize his power: The dispersal of the legions precluded concentration of power in the hands of an ambitious general with designs on the imperial throne and assured that Augustus alone would have control of the armies. In addition, the threat of defeat at the hands of extramural enemies was real; the annihilation of Varus and his legions at the Teutoburg Forest in 9 a.d. showed that Roman military techniques, so powerful in conquests of civilized peoples like the Carthaginians and Greeks, were less potent against wild terrain and savage barbarian tribes. Augustus's successors long remembered what came to be called the Varian Disaster and consequently institutionalized his policy of fortifying the frontiers. Williams argues that later emperors became married to Augustus's flawed formula for imperial defense, even as barbarian military competence improved. By the time the passivity of the frontier ensured its destruction at the hands of the barbarians, the frontier had done its work of preserving the civilization of Rome for four centuries. A fine look at the Roman frontier's function in the empire's political and military life, and at its meaning for history. (8 pages b&w photos, 30 maps) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

English historian Williams combines a history of Roman frontier military organization with a gazetteer of surviving Roman military structures. He does more than simply study Roman fortifications, also outlining Rome's traditional approach to offensive war and speculating on the reasons for the unprecedented shift to defensive warfare. Republican Rome had always seen itself as an expansionist state that took advantage of every opportunity to enlarge its territory and treasury by war. Following the end of the republic, the emperors became responsible for setting military policy. Williams believes that the shift to the defensive was more the result of personality and temperament than of external factors and that the shift fatally weakened the spirit of the Roman army. His work will appeal to readers interested in ancient military history. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.?Robert Andrews, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A by-product of the gradual slackening of Rome's expansionist impulses was the development of a policy of defensible static frontiers. Thus, the Rhine-Danube frontier was protected by a series of fortified structures. In the far north, Hadrian's Wall was constructed to protect southern Britain from incursions by Picts. Williams has written an innovative and valuable survey of frontier regions, in which he describes them as zones of cultural and political interchange as well as occasionally violent conflict. His treatment of the Parthian frontier sheds light on a region often neglected even by classical specialists. General readers with a moderate interest in classical history will find this somewhat difficult; however, those with a good history background will discover a treasure trove of information and insight. Jay Freeman