At empire's edge : exploring Rome's Egyptian frontier / / Robert B. Jackson

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910820329303321
• Autore: Jackson Robert B. <1961->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2002
• ISBN: 1-281-73032-7; 9786611730321; 0-300-12951-3
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (1 online resource (xxv, 350 p.) ) : ill., maps
• Disciplina: 932/.022
• Soggetti: Romans - Egypt; Egypt Antiquities, Roman; Egypt Boundaries; Egypt History 30 B.C.-640 A.D
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-335) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- I. The Hills of Smoke, Gebel Dokhan -- II. Mons Claudianus -- III. The Quarry Roads to the Nile -- IV. Ports on the Red Sea Coast -- V. Desert Trade Routes -- VI. The Gateway to Africa: Aswan, Elephantine, and Philae -- VII. Roman Nubia -- Overview of the Western Desert -- VIII. The Great Oasis -- IX. The Small Oasis -- X. Siwa Oasis -- ABBREVIATIONS -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
• Sommario/riassunto: When Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C. after the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, its vast and mysterious frontier lands had an important impact on the commerce, politics, and culture of the empire. This engrossing book-part history and part gazetteer-focuses on Rome's Egyptian frontier, describing the ancient fortresses, temples, settlements, quarries, and aqueducts scattered throughout the region and conveying a vivid sense of what life was like for its inhabitants. Robert B. Jackson has journeyed, by jeep and on foot, to virtually every known Roman site in the area, from Siwa Oasis, forty-five kilometers from the modern Libyan border, to the Sudan. Drawing ; on both archaeological and historical information, he discusses these sites, explaining how Rome extracted exotic stone and precious metals from the mountains of the Eastern Desert, channeled the wealth of India and East Africa through the desert via ports on the Red Sea, constructed and manned fortresses in the distant oases of the Western Desert, and facilitated the expansion of agricultural communities in the desert that eventually experienced the earliest large-scale conversions to Christianity in Egypt. Elegantly written and illustrated with many handsome photographs, the book will be a treasured resource for archaeologists, classicists, and travelers to the region.