East of Asia Minor

Rome's Hidden Frontier

Timothy Bruce Mitford

Features 28 large-scale colour maps and over 350 illustrations, including site plans of fortresses and forts of the frontier
Includes detailed description of the entire frontier and comprehensive discussion of its geography, climate, history, and garrison
Documents coin finds in the Euphrates valley for the first time, including several which are particularly rare
Contains a substantial epigraphic chapter which sets out all classical Greek and Latin inscriptions known in eastern Turkey and the Caucasus

East of Asia Minor

Rome's Hidden Frontier

Timothy Bruce Mitford

Description

The north-eastern frontier of the Roman Empire - one of the great gaps in modern knowledge of the ancient world - has long eluded research. It has defied systematic exploration and been insulated against all but passing survey by wars, instability, political sensitivities, language, and the region's wild, remote mountains, mostly accessible only on horseback or on foot. Its path lay across eastern Turkey, following the Euphrates valley northwards from Syria, through gorges and across great ranges, and passing over the Pontic Alps to reach the further shores of the Black Sea. Vespasian established Rome's frontier against Armenia half a century before Hadrian's Wall. Five times as long, and climbing seven times as high, it was garrisoned ultimately by four legions and a large auxiliary army, stationed in intermediate forts linked by military roads.

The two volumes of East of Asia Minor: Rome's Hidden Frontier - based on research, field work conducted largely on foot, and new discoveries - document the topography, monuments, inscriptions, and sighted coins of the frontier, looking in detail at strategic roads, bridges, forts, watch and signalling systems, and navigation of the Euphrates itself. Study of the terrain provides a foundation for interpreting the literary and epigraphic evidence for the frontier and its garrisons. Military activity, which extended to the Caucasus and the Caspian, is placed in the context of climate, geography, and inter-regional trade routes. 28 colour maps and over 350 photographs, plans, and travellers' sketches not only document the history of eastern Turkey as a frontier region of the Roman empire, but also reveal an ancient way of life, still preserved during the 1960s and 1970s, but now almost obliterated by the developments of the modern world.

East of Asia Minor

Rome's Hidden Frontier

Timothy Bruce Mitford

VOLUME I
Foreword
Preface
List of Maps, Plates, and Figures
Ancient Sources
Chapter I: The Geography and Climate of the Frontier and Adjacent Areas
Chapter II: Historical Outline
Chapter III: The Course of the Limes
Commagene
III.1. Samasota
Cappadocia
III.2. The Taurus
III.3. The Taurus Gorge
III.4. East of Melitene: The Euphrates Crossing
III.5. Melitene
III.6. North of Melitene: Ciaca
III.7. The Basin of the Arabkir Çay: Dascusa
III.8. The Southern Approaches to the Antitaurus: Sabus
III.9. The Antitaurus
III.10. The Antitaurus Gorge
Armenia Minor
III.11. From the Çalti Çay to the Karabudak: Zimara
III.12. The Road System of Armenia Minor
III.13. Per Ripam to Satala
III.14. From the Euphrates to Nicopolis
III.15. Nicopolis and the Support Roads to Satala
III.16. Across the Mountains to Satala
III.17. Satala
Pontus
III.18. The Pontic Mountains
III.19. Trapezus
III.20. The Pontic Coast
VOLUME II
Chapter IV: The Garrison
VI.1. The Legionary Garrison
VI.1.1. XII Fulminata
VI.1.2. XVI Flavia Firma
VI.1.3. XV Apollinaris
VI.1.4. I Pontica
VI.2. The Auxilia
VI.2.1. Alae
VI.2.2. Cohorts
Chapter V: Coin Finds
Chapter VI: Inscriptions
Appendix 1: Ancient Geographical Sources
Appendix 2: Notitia Dignitatum: Dux Armeniae (Oriens 38)
Appendix 3: Turkish Place-names, Maps, and Meanings
Appendix 4: Notes on Provisions, Transport, and Population in Late Ottoman Times
Appendix 5: Beyond the Euphrates: Some Points of Topography
Journals and Book Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index 1: Epigraphic
Index 2: Topographical
Index 3: General
Index 4: Personal Names
Index 5: General

East of Asia Minor

Rome's Hidden Frontier

Timothy Bruce Mitford

Author Information

Timothy Bruce Mitford, Associate Member, Corpus Christi College Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity, University of Oxford

Timothy Bruce Mitford is an Associate Member of the Corpus Christi College Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity at the University of Oxford and Commander, Royal Navy. In 2018, Dr Mitford was awarded a British Academy Medal for East of Asia Minor: Rome's Hidden Frontier, Vols I & II (Oxford University Press, 2018).

East of Asia Minor

Rome's Hidden Frontier

Timothy Bruce Mitford

Reviews and Awards

"magnificent publication" -- Times Literary Supplement

"By any definition, this two-volume set is a magnum opus, a veritable treasure trove of information about the eastern limes of the Roman Empire...Mitford deserves huge praise for his selfless and endless devotion to a task that he set himself back in 1962" -- C S. Lightfoot, Metropolitan Museum, New York, Journal of Roman Archaeology

"[A] gripping but discreetly understated account . . . Mitford's lifetime of exploration, presented with extraordinary generosity between the covers of this Jahrhundertbuch, has produced as full a record as we are ever likely to possess of the remains of this hidden frontier, but still leaves questions about its nature and purpose open to further debate." -- JRS

"The workmanship is as intricate and careful as that of a watchmaker ... The two volumes of East of Asia Minor are beautifully produced ... The reviewer is dumbfounded at the amount of material gathered and the lucidity with which it is presented." -- James Howard-Johnston, Pelican Record

"[A] detailed encyclopedic and highly referenced two-volume work documenting regional climate, geography, history, trade routes, inscriptions, and numismatics (c. 130 BCE-CE 677) [...] Research on this scale sets new standards of academic scholarship unlikely to be surpassed. Summing Up: Essential." -- C. C. Kolb , independent scholar, CHOICE

Dr Mitford was awarded a British Academy Medal for East of Asia Minor (2018).