What did the ancient Greeks and Romans think of the peoples they referred to as barbari? Did they share the modern Western conception—popularized in modern fantasy literature and role-playing games—of "barbarians" as brutish, unwashed enemies of civilization? Or our related notion of "the noble savage?" Was the category fixed or fluid? How did it contrast with the Greeks and Romans' conception of their own cultural identity? Was it based on race? In accessible, jargon-free prose, Erik Jensen addresses these and other questions through a copiously illustrated introduction to the varied and evolving ways in which the ancient Greeks and Romans engaged with, and thought about, foreign peoples—and to the recent historical and archaeological scholarship that has overturned received understandings of the relationship of Classical civilization to its "others."

本書は、文明の鏡として造形された野蛮人という幻影を、最新の考古学で鮮やかに解体する傑作です。ギリシャやローマが定義した他者の姿は、自らのアイデンティティを確立するために変容し続けた複雑な境界線でした。ファンタジー的な固定観念を覆し、文明と野蛮のあわいに潜む流動的な人間模様の真実を、情熱的な筆致で浮き彫りにしています。 エリック・ジェンセンは専門用語を排し、知的な昂揚感に満ちた物語を紡ぎ出します。人種や文化の定義を根底から揺さぶるその論考は、現代を生きる我々への挑戦状でもあります。古典古代の叡智と野性が交錯するスリリングな体験は、読者の知的好奇心を激しく揺さぶり、歴史という名の迷宮へと誘ってやみません。