Raoul McLaughlin - Böcker

Rome and China provides an updated history and analysis of contacts and mutual influence between two of ancient Eurasia’s most prominent imperial powers, Rome and China.It highlights the extraordinary interconnectivity of ancient Eurasia which allowed for actual contacts between Rome and China (however fleeting) and examines in detail the influences from both ends of Eurasia which had cultural and political consequences for both Rome and China.This volume will be of interest to anyone working on the Roman Empire, Inner Asia, the Silk Routes and China in the Classical and Late Antique periods.

The ancient Germans occupied lands extending from the river Rhine east to the Vistula and from the Danube north to Scandinavia. Their homelands formed the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire, but despite large-scale military and political efforts, the Romans never conquered or fully subjugated the territory they called Germania.Greek and Roman records provide extensive evidence for the Germanic peoples. These accounts explain the origins, culture, religious beliefs, trade relations, and social practices of the Germans that lived within and beyond the northern frontiers. This book includes early Greek legends regarding the Odyssey, the campaign descriptions of Julius Caesar, the Germania of Tacitus, ethnographic details from the encyclopaedic work of Pliny the Elder and much more besides. The barbaric customs, sacrifices and superstitions of the Germanic people are conveyed in these sources along with Roman prejudices and fears.The Romans first encountered the Germans in the second century BC when tribes from the Jutland Peninsula migrated south towards the Alps and threatened to overrun Italy. The legions defeated the Cimbri and Teutons, but the Germanic threat remained. In the 50s BC, Julius Caesar fought against the Germans in his conquest of Gaul and was the first Roman general to cross the Rhine. His successor, the Emperor Augustus, sent the legions into Germania to conquer and occupy territories as far as the Elbe. But in AD 9, under the leadership of the war-chief Arminius, the German tribes rebelled and slaughtered three legions in the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans withdrew to the Rhine and Danube rivers, establishing heavily militarized frontiers facing the Germanic lands. Subsequent emperors launched military campaigns against the northern tribes, but the greater part of Germany remained permanently unconquered. The Germans who broke this impasse were the Goths, Vandals, Franks, Angles and Saxons. They breached the frontiers in Late Antiquity and established new homelands in former Roman territories.This is the first book to present the ancient sources for the Germans. It will be a unique and valuable resource for future scholarship.

The Germanic tribes occupied lands extending from the river Rhine east to the Vistula, and from the Danube north to Scandinavia. Their homelands formed the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire, but despite large-scale military and political efforts, the Romans never conquered or fully subjugated this territory. Raoul McLaughlin presents new translations of all the significant Roman sources relating to contact and conflict between Rome and the people of the land they called Germania.The first great interaction between Rome and the Germans occurred with the mass population movements of 120 BC. The Cimbri and Teutones inflicted severe defeats on the Roman Republic before surging south to invade Italy. Over the succeeding centuries, Germans beyond the Rhine threatened the empire with raids, invasions and further migrations. In response the Romans launched retaliatory campaigns, pre-emptive strikes and large-scale operations to seize and control Germanic territory. When these conquests failed, every subsequent Roman emperor was forced to commit a large proportion of their military and economic resources to defend the Empire from the perceived Germanic threat.This volume covers events up to AD 68, including Julius Caesar's campaigns across the Rhine, the Augustan conquest of Germania as far as the Elbe and the great German retaliation in the Teutoburg Forest. This unique resource is for anyone interested in the Germanic peoples of ancient Europe, or the military and economic development of the Roman frontiers.

The Germanic nations of northern Europe resisted the Romans, forcing them to confine their empire within the heavily militarized Rhine and Danube frontiers. Despite fierce wars and repeated invasions, German tribes retained their independence until, in Late Antiquity, they surged forth to overrun and dismantle the Roman Empire itself.This collection of Greek and Latin sources gives accounts of ancient Germans beyond the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire written by those who were present at the time. These records include German service in the Roman army, the impact of civil war and the origin and development of later tribal groups. Chapters cover the Batavian Revolt (AD 69-70), the Marcomannic Wars of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 166-180), and later Rhine campaigns against the Alamanni. The final chapters cover the Migration Era, with the Germanic conquest of the Roman Empire, from the Gothic invasions to the Vandal capture of North Africa.This book is a valuable resource for ancient historians, classicists, archaeologists, and interested others, featuring events from the formation of the Rhine-Danube frontiers in the first century, to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.

Ancient Ireland and Britain were large Celtic territories on the northwest edge of Europe. They were subject to myth and speculation by the early Greeks and Romans, but they later became the focus for trade, exploration and partial conquest. Dr Raoul McLaughlin presents the ancient sources for the Atlantic Celts in chapters covering the resources, commerce, warfare and beliefs of the oceanic Celts.This book contains updated translations of ancient sources concerning the lands known as Ivernia and Britannia. These accounts reveal what the Greeks and Romans knew about the origins, culture, and social practices of the insular Celts. The evidence begins in 600 BC when Carthaginian merchant ships explored the Atlantic coasts of western Europe searching for metal alloys. Then, in 325 BC, a Greek mariner named Pytheas explored the northern limits of the Atlantic territories and returned with accounts of Bretannike, Ierne and Thule. But it was Rome that led armies across the northern seas to conquer Britain.This book includes the campaign reports of Julius Caesar, along with accounts of conquests by the Emperor Claudius. These ancient texts reveal the ambitions, conflict and compromises involved in establishing the Roman province of Britannia, which by AD 60 encompassed most of southern Britain. This book therefore provides a unique resource for future scholarship and a fascinating insight for anyone interested in the distant Celtic past.

Dr Raoul McLaughlin presents ancient sources for the Atlantic Celts, providing new, annotated translations of Roman texts. These describe contact and conflict between Rome and the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the Celtic peoples of northern Europe, or the military and economic development of the Roman frontiers.Roman forces conquered southern Britain in AD 43, establishing a seaboard province facing Gaul and the militarised Rhine frontier. But external threats and mass revolts revealed how easily this condensed province could be eradicated by warfare. Further expansion followed, but the Roman Empire struggled to locate and establish secure northern and western limits to Britannia. Despite large-scale military and political efforts, the Romans never conquered or fully subjugated the Celtic territories on the Atlantic edge of EuropeThis book contains ancient sources ranging from AD 60 and the Boudiccan Revolt, to the disintegration of imperial rule in the AD 400s. Chapters cover ancient Ireland, the Flavian expansion of Roman Britain, the planned Irish conquest and the first Caledonian campaign (AD 77-83). Further ancient evidence reveals the withdrawal and consolidation of imperial frontiers behind barriers such as Hadrian’s Wall, while later texts outline the threat posed by the Picts and ancient Irish. The final chapters cover the Germanic migrations that led to the collapse of Roman Britain and the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons.

Rome and China provides an updated history and analysis of contacts and mutual influence between two of ancient Eurasia’s most prominent imperial powers, Rome and China.It highlights the extraordinary interconnectivity of ancient Eurasia which allowed for actual contacts between Rome and China (however fleeting) and examines in detail the influences from both ends of Eurasia which had cultural and political consequences for both Rome and China.This volume will be of interest to anyone working on the Roman Empire, Inner Asia, the Silk Routes and China in the Classical and Late Antique periods.