Published by the University of Michigan Press, Timothy Hart’s first book, Beyond the River, Under the Eye of Rome, presents the Danube frontier of the Roman empire as the central stage for many of the most important political and military events of Roman history, from Trajan’s invasion of Dacia and the Marcomannic Wars, to the humbling of the Roman state power at the hands of the Goths and Huns.
Offering what reviewers refer to as “original and highly compelling reconstruction of ‘borderland’ societies,” Beyond the River delves into the cultural and political impacts of Rome’s interactions with Transdanubian peoples, whose long encounter with the Roman Empire, Hart argues, created a problematic template for later dealings with Goths and Huns based on misapplied ethnographic and ecological tropes. Further, Hart explores how Roman stereotypical perceptions of specific Danubian peoples directly influenced some of the most politically significant events of Roman antiquity.
Drawing on textual, inscriptional, and archaeological evidence, the book illustrates how Roman ethnic and ecological stereotypes were employed in the Danubian borderland to support an imperial frontier edifice fundamentally at odds with the region’s natural topography. Distorted Roman perceptions of their Danubian neighbors resulted in disastrous mismanagement of border wars and migrant crises throughout the first five centuries CE. Beyond the River demonstrates how state-supported stereotypes, when coupled with Roman military and economic power, exerted strong influences on the social structures and evolving group identities of the peoples dwelling in the borderland.
For more on the book and to order a print copy, visit the University of Michigan Press website.
The e-book version is open access and available for free! Find it here.