What was it like to live on the edges of ancient empires, at the boundaries of the known world? In this bold revisionist history of the ancient world, Owen Rees shifts our focus from the centres of Greece and Rome to the lively, long-ignored societies on the borders.

‘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.

Taking us along the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from Co-Loa in the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian’s Wall, Owen Rees explores the powerful empires and diverse peoples in Europe, Asia and Africa beyond the reaches of Greece and Rome. In doing so, he offers us a new, brilliantly rich lens with which to understand the ancient world.

"A wide-ranging tour of the fringes of the ancient world" - THE TIMES

"A notable recent trend in popular history is the revival of interest in the ancient world … Now Owen Rees joins the merry band with a strikingly original take on the subject … Rees relies significantly on archaeological evidence that has emerged only recently. His exploration of the outer fringes of empire, beneath the notice of what he calls ‘spoilt aristocrats’ like Ovid, is nothing if not wide-ranging. In his uncovering of forgotten stories of life on the periphery, he roams from the empty northern uplands of Hadrian’s Wall, the chilly mileposts where Roman African legionaries shivered and grumbled, to the ruins of Volubilis in the burning Moroccan desert" - SPECTATOR

"This refreshingly original tour of the ancient world’s lesser-known locales challenges readers to imagine familiar stories from the other side for a change . . . By highlighting how cultural partisans of the past shaped how history was told, Rees aims to help readers see beyond the stereotyping that bluntly divided the ancient world into tidy categories such as civilised and uncivilised, citizen and barbarian. His book is a reminder that while neatly defined narratives may seem appealing, the truth is rarely so straightforward" - WALL STREET JOURNAL