A Journey along the Frontiers of the Roman World

The Empire Stops Here

A magnificent, groundbreaking mixture of travel and history, about the full extent of the Roman Empire - where it reached, and what is left.

Magnificent... The book is studded with astonishing facts

The Empire Stops Here is not only a history. It is also an engaging modern travelogue...an unexpectedly universal legacy of the empire

Philip Parker is the perfect combination of compelling narrative historian and observant travel writer. This is one of the liveliest works of ancient history I've ever read

Intriguing...with this extraordinary book, [Parker] has raised a monument all of his own

A blend of travelogue, classical history and archaeology. His quest through the imperial badlands of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa succeeds in throwing fresh light onto the story of Rome and its often lunatic fringes, while offering classically minded travellers a few fresh ideas for routes and discoveries of their own

The book promotes itself as a 'groundbreaking mixture of travel and history' and Parker writes with confident fluency about both... Any lover of history will find something in it to fascinate them. Every page contains some gem of a fact that the author has lovingly unearthed. The patience, effort and research that have gone into The Empire Stops Here are awe-inspiring

Gives the readers a lucid account of the Empire's expansion

Parker has the tone of a dream Latin teacher, disciplined and wry, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the classical world

Philip Parker was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He has travelled widely including the whole length of the Roman frontier and large parts of the Viking World. He is the author of The Empire Stops Here: A Journey Along the Frontiers of the Roman World, published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. 
 
www.philipparker.net

The Roman Empire was the largest and most enduring of the ancient world. From its zenith under Augustus and Trajan in the first century AD to its decline and fall amidst the barbarian invasions of the fifth century, the Empire guarded and maintained a frontier that stretched for 5,000 kilometres, from Carlisle to Cologne, from Augsburg to Antioch, and from Aswan to the Atlantic. 
 
Far from being at the periphery of the Roman world, the frontier played a crucial role in making and breaking emperors, creating vibrant and astonishingly diverse societies along its course which pulsed with energy while the centre became enfeebled and sluggish. This remarkable new book traces the course of those frontiers, visiting all its astonishing sites, from Hadrian's Wall in the north of Britain to the desert cities of Palmyra and Leptis Magna. It tells the fascinating stories of the men and women who lived and fought along it, from Alaric the Goth, who descended from the Danube to sack Rome in 410, to Zenobia the desert queen, who almost snatched the entire eastern provinces from Rome in the third century. 
 
It is at their edges, in time and geographical extent, that societies reveal their true nature, constantly seeking to recreate and renew themselves. In this examination of the places that the mighty Roman Empire stopped expanding, Philip Parker reveals how and why the Empire endured for so long, as well as describing the rich and complex architectural and cultural legacy which it has bequeathed to us.

Philip Parker

It is quite a feat to write history this good... Everyone who visits the British Museum's Viking exhibition should go clutching a copy of this engaging and splendidly written book.

Parker has a traveller's eye for landscape and a storyteller's sense of events and character; The Northmen's Fury is probably the most lively and well-informed introduction to the subject available today.

Particularly fascinating... [Parker] proves expert at treading a delicate line between scholarship and his relish for the fantastical.

This book is a treasury with treats galore. Lucid, comprehensive, it is a work of reference which deserves to become a classic.

Perfectly timed for the forthcoming British Museum exhibition.

Philip Parker has encapsulated the Viking story in this book.

[An] energetic and intelligent guide to the Viking world.

A detailed study that succeeds in conveying the impact of the Viking age... A fascinating read.

A History of the Viking World

The Northmen’s Fury tells the Viking story, from the first pinprick raids of the eighth century to the great armies that left their Scandinavian homelands to conquer larger parts of France, Britain and Ireland. It recounts the epic voyages that took them across the Atlantic to the icy fjords of Greenland and to North America over four centuries before Columbus and east to the great rivers of Russia and the riches of the Byzantine empire. 
 
One summer’s day in 793, death arrived from the sea. The raiders who sacked the island monastery of Lindisfarne were the first Vikings, sea-borne attackers who brought two centuries of terror to northern Europe. Before long the sight of their dragon-prowed longships and the very name of Viking gave rise to fear and dread, so much so that monks were reputed to pray each night for delivery from ‘the Northmen’s Fury’. Yet for all their reputation as bloodthirsty warriors, the Vikings possessed a sophisticated culture that produced art of great beauty, literature of abiding power and kingdoms of surprising endurance. 
 
The Northmen’s Fury describes how and why a region at the edge of Europe came to dominate and to terrorise much of the rest of the continent for nearly three centuries and how, in the end, the coming of Christianity and the growing power of kings tempered the Viking ferocity and stemmed the tide of raids. It relates the astonishing achievement of the Vikings in forging far-flung empires whose sinews were the sea and whose arteries were not roads but maritime trading routes. 
 
The blood of the Vikings runs in millions of veins in Europe and the Americas and the tale of their conquests, explorations and achievements continues to inspire people around the world.

Philip Parker

Praise for The Northmen's Fury

It is quite a feat to write history this good... Everyone who visits the British Museum's Viking exhibition should go clutching a copy of this engaging and splendidly written book.

Parker has a traveller's eye for landscape and a storyteller's sense of events and character; The Northmen's Fury is probably the most lively and well-informed introduction to the subject available today.

Particularly fascinating... [Parker] proves expert at treading a delicate line between scholarship and his relish for the fantastical.

It is quite a feat to write history this good... Everyone who visits the British Museum's Viking exhibition should go clutching a copy of this engaging and splendidly written book.

Parker has a traveller's eye for landscape and a storyteller's sense of events and character; The Northmen's Fury is probably the most lively and well-informed introduction to the subject available today.

Particularly fascinating... [Parker] proves expert at treading a delicate line between scholarship and his relish for the fantastical.

It is quite a feat to write history this good... Everyone who visits the British Museum's Viking exhibition should go clutching a copy of this engaging and splendidly written book.

Parker has a traveller's eye for landscape and a storyteller's sense of events and character; The Northmen's Fury is probably the most lively and well-informed introduction to the subject available today.

Particularly fascinating... [Parker] proves expert at treading a delicate line between scholarship and his relish for the fantastical.

Books by Philip Parker

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