Tales of the Barbarians: Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West PDF
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Tales of the Barbarians Tales of the Barbarians: Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West Greg Woolf © 2011 Greg Woolf. ISBN: 978-1-405-16073-5 Blackwell Bristol Lectures on Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition Current Series Editor: Neville Morley TheBristolInstituteofGreece,RomeandtheClassicalTraditionpromotes thestudyofGreco-Romanculturefromantiquitytothepresentday,inthe beliefthatclassicalcultureremainsavitalinfluenceinthemodernworld.It embracesresearchandeducationinmanyfields,includinghistoryofallkinds, archaeology, literary studies, art history and philosophy, with particular emphasis on links between the ancient and modern worlds. The Blackwell BristolLecturesshowcasetheverybestofmodernscholarshipinClassicsand the Classical Tradition. Published Why Plato Wrote Danielle Allen Tales of the Barbarians: Ethnographyand Empire inthe Roman West Greg Woolf Tales of the Barbarians Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West Greg Woolf Thiseditionfirstpublished2011 (cid:1)2011GregWoolf BlackwellPublishingwasacquiredbyJohnWiley&SonsinFebruary2007.Blackwell’s publishingprogramhasbeenmergedwithWiley’sglobalScientific,Technical,andMedical businesstoformWiley-Blackwell. RegisteredOffice JohnWiley&SonsLtd,TheAtrium,SouthernGate,Chichester,WestSussex, PO198SQ,UnitedKingdom EditorialOffices 350MainStreet,Malden,MA02148–5020,USA 9600GarsingtonRoad,Oxford,OX42DQ,UK TheAtrium,SouthernGate,Chichester,WestSussex,PO198SQ,UK Fordetailsofourglobaleditorialoffices,forcustomerservices,andforinformationabouthowto applyforpermissiontoreusethecopyrightmaterialinthisbookpleaseseeourwebsiteatwww. wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. TherightofGregWoolftobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhasbeenassertedinaccordance withtheUKCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingor otherwise,exceptaspermittedbytheUKCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,withoutthe priorpermissionofthepublisher. Wileyalsopublishesitsbooksinavarietyofelectronicformats.Somecontentthatappearsin printmaynotbeavailableinelectronicbooks. Designationsusedbycompaniestodistinguishtheirproductsareoftenclaimedastrademarks.All brandnamesandproductnamesusedinthisbookaretradenames,servicemarks,trademarksor registeredtrademarksoftheirrespectiveowners.Thepublisherisnotassociatedwithanyproduct orvendormentionedinthisbook.Thispublicationisdesignedtoprovideaccurateand authoritativeinformationinregardtothesubjectmattercovered.Itissoldontheunderstanding thatthepublisherisnotengagedinrenderingprofessionalservices.Ifprofessionaladviceorother expertassistanceisrequired,theservicesofacompetentprofessionalshouldbesought. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Woolf,Greg. Talesofthebarbarians:ethnographyandempireintheRomanwest/GregWoolf. p.cm.—(BlackwellBristollecturesonGreece,Romeandtheclassicaltradition) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-1-4051-6073-5(hardcover:alk.paper) 1. Acculturation–Rome. 2. Rome– Ethnicrelations. 3. Rome–Culturepolicy. 4. Rome–History–Empire,30B.C.–284A.D. 5. Nationalcharacteristics,WestEuropean. I. Title. DG272.W662011 9370.07–dc22 2010030303 AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. Setin10/12ptSabonbyThomsonDigital,India PrintedinMalaysia 1 2011 Contents Translations Used vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Telling Tales on the MiddleGround 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 Indexof Main Passages Discussed 168 For my mother Translations Used Except where otherwise noted, translations are reprinted by permission of thepublishersandTrusteesoftheLoebClassicalLibrary,Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress,copyrightbythePresidentandFellowsofHarvard College. Loeb Classical Library(cid:1) is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All other translations are by the author. The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus, during the Reign of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens, trans. C.D. Yonge. London:BohnsClassicalLibrary,1862. Appians Roman History, trans. Horace White. Loeb Classical Library. London: WilliamHeinemann,1912. Dios Roman History, trans. Earnest Cary and Herbert Baldwin Foster. Loeb ClassicalLibrary.Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1914. Diodorus of Sicily, trans. C.H. Oldfather. 12 vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cam- bridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1933–9. The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, trans. Earnest Cary and EdwardSpelmann.LoebClassicalLibrary.London:WilliamHeinemann,1937. Hippocrates,vol.1,trans.W.H.S.Jones.LoebClassicalLibrary.London:William Heinemann,1923. Justin,HistoryoftheWorldextractedfromTrogusPompeius,etc.,trans.JohnSelby Watson.London:GeorgeBell&Sons,1890. Livy in Fourteen Volumes, trans. B.O. Foster. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1924. Manilius Astrononomica, trans. G.P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1992. PartheniusofNicaea.ThepoeticalfragmentsandtheErotika` payh´mata.Edited withintroductionandcommentariesbyJaneL.Lightfoot.Oxford:Clarendon Press,1999. Plutarchs Lives, vol. 2, trans. Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library. London: WilliamHeinemann,1914. viii TALES OF THE BARBARIANS Polybius,TheHistories,trans.W.R.Paton.LoebClassicalLibrary.Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress,1922. Posidonius III, The Translation of the Fragments, trans. I.G. Kidd. Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. TheGeographyofStrabo,trans.H.C.HamiltonandW.Falconer,3vols.London. GeorgeBell&Sons.1903. Tacitus, Germania, Translated with Introduction and Commentary, trans. James B.Rives.ClarendonAncientHistorySeries.Oxford:ClarendonPress,1999. Vitruvius, On Architecture, trans. Frank Grancer. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1934. Introduction JosephConrad’sHeartofDarknessbeginswithastory,toldonthedeckofa cruisermooredontheThamesestuarywhereagroupofoldfriendspassthe time as they wait for the tide to turn. As the sun sets over London, the narrator begins his tale of the degeneration of imperial rule and Western rationalityinthedepthsofAfrica.‘“Andthisalso,”saidMarlowsuddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”’ ThephraseisaquotationfromPsalm74,anappealtoGodnottoforsake hispeopleinthemidstoftheheathen,averysuitableepigramforthisnovel. Verse20intheKingJamesBiblereads‘Haverespectuntothecovenant:for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty’. NeitherConradnorMarlowfollowsupthatthoughtimmediately.Conrad continuesbycharacterizingthislatter-dayOdysseusasaninveteratefollower oftheseas,amanwhosewanderingmindisuntypicalofsailors,especiallyin his yarns, because to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernelbutoutside,envelopingthetalelikeamistyhalo.Marlow,forhispart, continues: Iwasthinkingofveryoldtimes,whentheRomansfirstcamehere,nineteen hundred years ago – the other day ... Light came out of this river, you say Knights?Yes;butitislikearunningblazeonaplain,likeaflashoflightningin the clouds. We live in the flicker – may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling!Butdarknesswashereyesterday.Imaginethefeelingsofacommander ofafine–whatd’yecall‘em?–triremeintheMediterranean,orderedsuddenly tothenorth;runoverlandacrosstheGaulsinahurry;putinchargeofoneof thesecraftthelegionaries–awonderfullotofhandymentheymusthavebeen, too–usedtobuild,apparentlybythehundred,inamonthortwo,ifwemay believewhatweread.Imaginehimhere–theveryendoftheworld,aseathe Tales of the Barbarians: Ethnography and Empire in the Roman West Greg Woolf © 2011 Greg Woolf. ISBN: 978-1-405-16073-5 2 TALES OF THE BARBARIANS colour of lead, a sky the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina–andgoingupthisriverwithstores,ororders,orwhatyoulike. Sand-banks,marshes,forests,savages,–preciouslittletoeatfitforacivilized man,nothingbutThames waterto drink.No Falernianwine here,no going ashore.Hereandthereamilitarycamplostinawilderness,likeaneedleina bundleofhay–cold,fog,tempests,disease,exile,anddeath–deathskulkingin theair,inthewater,inthebush.Theymusthavebeendyinglikeflieshere. TheHeartofDarknesswaspublishedin1902,justfiveyearsafterKipling’s poem‘Recessional’,andthisopeningframevoicesasimilarconsciousnessof the imminent end of empire. Rome, as so often for this generation, offered compellingresemblancesandcontrasts.Marlowgoesonatoncetoprovide someofthelatter:wearenotquitelikethem,wearemoreefficient,theywere nocolonistsandbarelyhadanadministration.Theyweremereconquerors, who‘grabbedwhattheycouldgetforthesakeofwhatwastobegot’andhe continuesinsimilarvein.Thereaderisnottakenin,ofcourse.WhatMarlow foundupriver,at‘thefarthestpointofnavigationandtheculminationofmy experience’,willshatterforeverhisandourfaithinthecomfortingnarratives ofthecivilizingprocess.WearenobetterthantheRomans,andourfatewill be no different from theirs. ThinkingabouttheBritishempireintermsofancientRomewasperhaps inevitable.SomuchoftheparaphernaliaofBritishrule–titlesandslogans, symbols and ornaments – had been created in the Victorian era, when the statusofClassicsintheeducationoftheBritishelitewasatanalltimehigh.1 Yet there has been a price for historians in this Romanizing of Europe’s imperialadventures.WheneverBritainbecomesthenewRome,theancient Britons, the Gauls and other western peoples become Victorian savages, illiterate tribesmen hidden in the dark forests of an unexplored continent. Rome’s penetration of Europe was easy to imagine as a precursor of the ScrambleforAfrica.Manyversionsoftheanalogyhavesincebeenpresented. TherehavebeennobleBritons,andBritishvictimsaswellasBritishsavages. Scholarshavedrawnattentiontothelimitationsofthecomparison,fromat least the beginning of the twentieth century.2 Yet successive generations of revisionistshavefounditeasiertoexchangedominationandexploitationfor the civilizingprocessthan todecolonize our historiesofthe Roman West.3 Post-colonialstudieshaveinmanywaysonlyprolongedourdoubleidentifi- cation with Roman imperialism and its victims. Thisbookisintendedasacontributiontothisprojectofdecolonization. Decolonizingdoesnotmeanredressingthebalance.Thisisnoattempttogive voicestothosewhomIshallcontinuetocallbarbarians,andcertainlynotto proclaimtheirwaysoflifebetterthan(orevenmerelydifferentfrom)what replacedthemunderRomanrule.Iamnotsettingoutto‘taketheirside’,asif byaffirmingsolidaritywithsomeofmyconqueredancestors, Icanexpiate
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