Greg Woolf 
Tales of the Barbarians 
Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West

Tales of the Barbarians traces the creation of new
mythologies in the wake of Roman expansion westward to the
Atlantic, and offers the first application of modern ethnographic
theory to ancient material.

* Investigates the connections between empire and knowledge at
the turn of the millennia, and the creation of new histories in the
Roman West

* Explores how ancient geography, local histories and the stories
of wandering heroes were woven together by Greek scholars and local
experts

* Offers a fresh perspective by examining passages from
ancient writers in a new light

Tabella dei contenuti

Translations Used vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Telling Tales on the Middle Ground 8

Chapter 2: Explaining the Barbarians 32

Chapter 3: Ethnography and Empire 59

Chapter 4: Enduring Fictions? 89

Notes 119

References 146

General Index 164

Index of Main Passages Discussed 168

Circa l’autore

Greg Woolf is Professor of Ancient History at the
University of St. Andrews. He is the author of Becoming Roman:
The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul (1998) and
Rome: An Empire’s Story (2012) as well as the
co-editor of Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (with
A. K. Bowman, 1994), Rome the Cosmopolis (with C. Edwards,
2003) and Ancient Libraries (with J.König,
2013).