Terry Jones' Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History

About time people begin looking at the Roman Empire with clearer vision. Although a magnificent group, Roman citizens stole wisely from every culture they came in contact with taking full credit. This book examines group by group with appreciation for each contribution to civilization, including language. I personally enjoy Jones' style and it's a relief to examine these issues with a non-scholar (he thinks), but an avid, intelligent inquirer. I have found no real historical errors in his books on Chaucer's murder or the Crusades, and this is a welcome addition.

I can't say enough about how refreshingly interesting and delightfully truthful this book is on the so called 'history' of civilizations that originated from Persians, Greeks, Romans and others in that era, from an unbiased and rather deeply insightful point of view. This is a huge contrast to what we in the western world are used to reading and hearing about. Terry Jones has done a superb job in his observations and narrations of events that took place thousands of years ago and I highly recommend this book to everyone who is interested in learning more about history. You will enjoy it!!!

Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely fresh approach to Roman history. Not only does it offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of the people written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people, with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire. So you think you know everything about the Romans? They gave us sophisticated road systems, chariots and the modern-day calendar. And of course they had to contend with barbarian hordes that continually threatened the peace, safety and prosperity of their Empire. Didn't they? In his new book and the accompanying four-part BBC Two television series Terry Jones argues that we have been sold a false history of Rome that has twisted our entire understanding of our own history. Terry asks what did the Romans ever do for us? This is the story of Roman history as seen by the Britons, Gauls, Germans, Greeks, Persians and Africans. The Vandals didn't vandalize - the Romans did. The Goths didn't sack Rome - the Romans did. Attila the Hun didn't go to Constantinople to destroy it, but because the Emperor's daughter wanted to marry him. And far from civilizing the societies they conquered the Romans often destroyed much of what they found. Terry Jones travels round the geography of the Roman Empire and through 700 years of history - bringing wit, irreverence, passion and the very latest scholarship to transform our view of the legacy of the Roman Empire and the creation of the modern world. Welcome to history from a different point of view. This is a much thicker and more scholarly work than Medieval Lives, but no less humorous (sidesplitting, in fact). I sincerely hope both the BBC2 productions of Barbarians and of Medieval Lives come available on DVD, and soon!