Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


The Maeander Valley

The Maeander Valley

The Maeander Valley

A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium
Peter Thonemann, University of Oxford
July 2015
Available
Paperback
9781107538139

    This book is a study of the long-term historical geography of Asia Minor, from the fourth century BC to the thirteenth century AD. Using an astonishing breadth of sources, ranging from Byzantine monastic archives to Latin poetic texts, ancient land records to hagiographic biographies, Peter Thonemann reveals the complex and fascinating interplay between the natural environment and human activities in the Maeander valley. Both a large-scale regional history and a profound meditation on the role played by geography in human history, this book is an essential contribution to the history of the Eastern Mediterranean in Graeco-Roman antiquity and the Byzantine Middle Ages.

    • Provides a detailed local history of south-western Asia Minor in the Greek, Roman and Byzantine periods
    • Proposes a new way of writing historical geography over long time periods
    • Makes a theoretical contribution with potential impact beyond the field of ancient history and Byzantine studies

    Reviews & endorsements

    'This is a book to celebrate. Consistently readable, conceptually sophisticated, uncompromisingly scholarly, beautifully illustrated, and elegantly produced by Cambridge University Press (which has done an outstanding job), Thonemann's Maeander sets new standards for regional studies. If anyone were in doubt about the intellectual panache of classics and ancient history in the second decade of the 21st c., here is all the proof they need.' Mark Whittow, Journal of Roman Archaeology

    See more reviews

    Product details

    July 2015
    Paperback
    9781107538139
    414 pages
    245 × 170 × 25 mm
    0.72kg
    110 b/w illus. 13 maps
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • 1. The valley
    • 2. Hydrographic heroes
    • 3. The nature of Roman Apamea
    • 4. The fortress at Eumenea
    • 5. The pastoral economy
    • 6. The nobility of Mt Cadmus
    • 7. The rural economy
    • 8. The bounty of the Maeander.
      Author
    • Peter Thonemann , University of Oxford

      Peter Thonemann teaches ancient history at Wadham College, Oxford University. He is co-author of the widely acclaimed first volume of the Penguin History of Europe, The Birth of Classical Europe: A History From Troy to Augustine (with Simon Price). The Maeander was awarded the Hellenic Foundation's 2006 Award for the best ancient/classical thesis in Hellenic Studies, and Oxford University's Conington Prize for 2009.