About.com Rating



In addition, Jones is often too busy belittling Rome to explore fascinating comparisons: the Celts and Rome both built roads, one out of wood and the other stone. While some historians might discuss the relative merits of each and possible cross-pollination, Barbarians is content to conclude that the Romans aren't the sole builders of roads and move on. Indeed, Jones and Ereira try so hard to rescue the barbarians from their traditional image they end up distorting them.

The use of sources is also unbalanced. While the authors begin by explaining how unreliable Roman accounts of their neighbours are – at one point mocking Julius Caesar for describing elks with no knees – they seem perfectly happy to accept potentially inflated Roman accounts of the numbers enslaved or killed. Can we really believe that Caesar killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more? Barbarians would have us believe so without debate. They do admit that Caesar was simply reproducing the elk story from those he’d heard from 'barbarians', but only much later in the book.

Despite the faults listed above, the book is very easy to read, with a smooth text, some modern slang thrown in every now and again to spice things up, and simple explanations of sometimes complex topics. Barbarians' account of the fall of Rome might well be contentious, even wrong, but it certainly explains itself well. Unfortunately, the authors draw many modern parallels between the imperial might of Rome crushing her neighbours; these include, and are limited to, the United States, Britain, Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, how to conclude? If you've read any scholarship from the last decade you'll find the book misleading and if you describe yourself using any of the following political tags – neocon, republican, hawk, fervent catholic – you'll find the book annoying. But if all you’ve ever been taught about the 'barbarians' is how they destroyed Rome – indeed, if you actually use the word barbarians to describe anyone from antiquity – then this book won't provide you with an accurate view, but it will provide the barbarian's side of the argument in a fun and easily readable way. For all its faults, this book is the best chance we have of interesting people who’d previously steered well clear of the 'barbarians'.