Romans and Barbarians: Four Views From the Empire's Edge by Derek Williams Page A

a conference about the impact of the Roman invasion on Iron Age communities in Britain (BAR 73, 1979), Professor Cunliffe writes:
    If one came away from the conference with only one impression it would be that Roman Britain is too important to be left to the Romanists! The divide between Romanist and prehistorian (or for that matter between Romanist and Dark Age specialist) is far too abrupt for the health of our discipline [ … ] It is, I think, above all the result of laziness, breeding a defensive arrogance [ … ] The disciplines have diverged to such an extent during the last half century that the mental effort required to master both is more than many scholars are prepared to make [ … ] There are however signs that this unfortunate divide is breaking down.
    Nearly twenty years on, the divide remains. No thoroughgoing merger has occurred in research and the secondary literatures largely reflect these separate courses. Could it be that the origins of this divergence lie far deeper than our own century? Is it perhaps the legacy of Rome’s 400-year frontier, whose presence accentuated and perpetuated the distinction between the two worlds: one recoverable from the page, the other from the soil? The activities, motives and achievements of these two sets of peoples (those inside, and those outside the Roman empire) have survived in different proportions and degrees, with each unlockable in its own way. It behoves the ancient historian and the archaeologist of the future to carry both sets of keys.
    Finally, I would like to thank those who helped me during the assembly of illustrations: in Germany our friends Otto and Annegret Kollecker for kind hospitality and much practical assistance; also Professor Wolfgang Schlüter for valuable advice and for arranging to make pictorial material available. My visit to Romania was greatly facilitated by the co-operation of the Museum of National History, Constantsa and the Adamclisi Museum, to whose officers I am indebted. Detail of photo-credits is given with the Photographic List.

LIST OF ROMAN EMPERORS
1st AND 2nd CENTURIES
Augustus
 
27 BC – AD 14
Tiberius
 
14–37
‘Caligula’
 
37–41
Claudius
 
41–54
Nero
 
54–68
Galba
 
68
Otho
 
69
Vitellius
 
69
Vespasian
 
69–79
Titus
 
79–81
Domitian
 
81–96
Nerva
 
96–98
Trajan
 
98–117
Hadrian
 
117–38
Antoninus
 
139–61
Marcus
 
161–80
Commodus
 
180–92
Pertinax
 
193
Didius Julianus
 
193
Septimius
 
193–211

PROLOGUE
    Romans and Barbarians
    T HROUGH WAR, TRADE, EXILE OR accident, Romans parted the curtain between their world and that of the outside peoples and occasionally left accounts of what they saw and did. Best known are Caesar’s. This book moves forward to the century following, presenting four episodes from the early imperial period, which straddle Europe from the Black Sea to the Scottish Highlands, offering portraits of Rome’s Sarmatian, German and Celtic neighbours. Its setting is the empire’s northern margins and beyond, where Mediterranean certainties falter and history hesitates. Though supplemented by recent findings and modern thinking, these glimpses from the rim of the classical world retain the almost accidental quality of snapshots, afforded us not only by Rome’s wide expansion but also through the chance presence of individuals, who ventured or were sent beyond the imperial pale. The first two episodes are dated to the ninth year of our era, but their context harks back to 27 BC : the accession of Augustus and the empire’s commencement. The final episode ends at the beginning of Hadrian’s reign in AD 117 when, with his emphasis on neutrality, large-scale intervention in barbarian affairs diminishes.
    Mindful of the distinction between prehistory and history, based on the absence or presence of a written record, one is