Tales of the Barbarians
Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West

"Greg Woolf's wide-ranging and engaging study of ethnographic traditions about the "barbarian" west exposes the complex mixture of myth, stereotype, and information deriving from the interplay between inquirers and inhabitants and from the shifting circumstances that generated their creation and their transformation."
Erich Gruen, University of California, Berkeley

“Woolf dissects Greek and Roman ethnological accounts to give a voice to the otherwise silent people Rome conquered and analyses the role of myths in empire building.”
David Breeze, The University of Edinburgh

Greg Woolf (Author)

9781405160735, Wiley

Hardback, published 7 January 2011

176 pages
23.6 x 16.3 x 1.9 cm, 0.422 kg

"A work of fundamental importance for students of ancient ethnography. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries." (Choice, 1 November 2011)

"By contrast, Woolf has rendered the topic in crisp and elegant prose. This reviewer suspects that, like good ancient ethnography, Woolf's contribution will very soon take on a life of its own". (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 25 July 2011)

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

Translations Used Introduction 1

Subject Areas: History [HB]