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Book Cover
E-book
Author Mitford, Timothy Bruce, author.

Title Discovering Rome's eastern frontier : on foot through a vanished world / Timothy Bruce Mitford
Edition First edition
Published Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2021
©2021

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Description 1 online resource (xliv, 534 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Samosata and Northern Commagene -- Over the Taurus to Melitene -- Through the Taurus Gorge -- The Malatya Plain, the Euphrates Crossing (Tomisa), Dulluk Tepe, and Melitene -- North of Melitene : Ciaca and Keban -- The Arabkir Çay and Dascusa -- Sabus, and over the Antitaurus -- Through the Antitaurus Gorge -- From the Antitaurus to the Karabudak : Zimara, and the road to Nicopolis -- Per Ripam to Erzincan and Satala -- Across the Mountains to Satala -- Satala (Sadak) -- From Satala to the Upper Harşit -- Through the Pontic Mountains to Maçka -- Over the Pontic Mountains to Maçka -- Maçka to Trapezus (Trabzon) -- The Pontic Coast -- Annex A : Geography and Climate -- Annex B : Chronology -- Annex C : Glossary of Latin and Turkish Words -- Annex D : Travellers
Summary "An account, primarily academic, of the eastern Roman frontier extending from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. This is the product of solo exploration of sensitive territory in challenging conditions over four decades, to discover the material remains of Rome's last unexplored frontier. Barely visited and until now effectively unknown, it followed the Euphrates valley, passed over and through two great ranges, and penetrated the harsh mountains, 'cleansed' of Armenians and Greeks, of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea. From Trapezus a chain of forts stretched along the Pontic coast to the foothills of the Caucasus. The geographical framework introduces frontier installations as they occur: fortresses and forts, roads, bridges, signalling stations, and navigation of the Euphrates. It is illustrated with large-scale maps, observations of consuls and travellers, memories of Turkish and Kurdish villagers, notes and photographs of a way of life little changed since antiquity, and encounters with the modern world. The process of discovery was mainly on foot, with local guides and staying in villages, 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 else. So there are encounters with treasure hunters and apparent bandits; arrests and death threats; Armenian massacres and crypto-Christians; memories of saints, caravans and the Russian advance in 1916; tensions between Kurds and Turks; the menace of the PKK; escorts and village guards; birds, bears and wild boars; rafts and fishing; earthquakes." -- Provided by the publisher
Notes Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on August 5, 2022)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Subject Boundaries
Classical antiquities
SUBJECT Rome -- Boundaries -- Turkey, Eastern
Rome -- Boundaries -- Syria
Rome -- Boundaries -- Caucasus
Turkey, Eastern -- Antiquities, Roman
Caucasus -- Antiquities, Roman
Syria -- Antiquities, Roman
Rome -- Boundaries. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002010901
Subject Eastern Turkey
Caucasus
Rome (Empire)
Syria
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780192655349
0192655345
9780191926051
0191926051