Like most of us, I believed that Rome had brought the Pax Romana, peace and civilization to the countries it conquered. After reading Jones' book, I'm not quite sure. Jones makes an convincing argument that the reason it appears that Rome was a nice conqueror was because there hadn't really been any real research -- just everyone believing the Empire's self-aggrandizing propaganda.

Now, it seems, there's been some interesting archeology done, some more precise readings of the great Roman historians, such as Tacitus. These paint an entirely different picture of just how barbaric the barbarians truly were.

Great book. You should read it. ( )

A fun book, Barbarians gives a full-spectrum view of history from the bias of Non-Romans in the Western and Near-Eastern world - Terry Jones does for history what Michael Palin does for geography and John Cleese does for lemurs. Combining wit, up-to-date research and findings and historical texts, everyone gets a look-in from the Celts, Germans, Greeks, Persians, Goths, Huns and Vandals, and it also gives a wider social, economic, religious and historical perspective of the Romans from the start to the end of their civilisation. Although this book is sort of "arm-chair history", there are plenty of sources referenced and a good set of notes for further, more indepth reading at a later stage and it gave me a good basic understanding of a slice of history I'm not well-versed in.

Definitely recommended for recreational fans of ancient history. ( )

This is an excellent book about the Roman Empire and its interactions with the different societies and cultures it came into conflict with over the centuries. Using mostly Roman sources it tells very different histories about these other “barbarian” cultures and compares them to “civilized” Rome, exposing the true barbarians.

The book is divided into four parts: The Celts; Barbarians From the North (Germans, Dacia and Goths); Barbarians From the East (Hellenes, Persia – the early dynasties and Sassanians); and Vandals and Huns. As I finished each part I wished they had written more about each, but I realized that the stories they were telling were over. This does create a minor issue, as the Vandals’ history with the Roman Empire collides with the Goths’ history with the Romans. Several times the authors refer back to the same events written about earlier in the book. This aside, I enjoyed being able to follow the history of the Roman Empire’s interaction with the different cultures from beginning to end (or assimilation)

Besides the conflicts with other cultures, the authors bring up the Empire’s conflicts with Christianity. They also go into some detail about the conflicts between the early Christian Churches as they battled for supremacy. These conflicts between the early Christian Churches cast a large bloody shadow over the very foundation of Christianity.

Highly readable, often humorous and always entertaining, is also thought provoking. At a slim 260 pages it is an excellent introduction to the history of the Roman Empire and also the early Christian Church. ( )

This was a fascinating book - well written and particularly intriguing as it proposes a revisionist view of the Barbarians who, among other things, sacked Rome; Goths, Visigoths, Celts, Vikings,and Mongols abound ( )