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Center and Periphery in Tacitus's Histories
- Arethusa
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 36, Number 3, Fall 2003
- pp. 361-374
- 10.1353/are.2003.0026
- Article
- Additional Information
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Contemporary readers are inclined to regard geography through a two-dimensional outline, the most common method of map-drawing. Such representations, however, carry considerable cultural baggage. In the Roman world, it is likely that the relationship between points was more often viewed one-dimensionally as in a strip map. In the Histories, Tacitus manipulates geographical material to imbue it with ethical values and to emphasise the dangers of loss of central control over the extremities of the empire.