Inside and Out: Interactions between Rome and the peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity by J.H.F. Dijkstra, G. Fisher (review)

The general problem posed by Inside and Out: Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity is how to think and write about frontiers, the geographical spaces where the peoples within and skirting around Roman control encountered each other and interacted. There were also inter-communal frontiers, independent of geographical or administrative demarcations. The volume contains excellent re-evaluations of the more familiar Roman sources by Ariel Lewin, Conor Whately, Hugh Elton, and Geoffrey Greatrex that form the whole project’s touchstone. But what is most exciting is the less familiar material examined by specialists in Arabian, Egyptian, Nubian and Ethiopic epigraphies and material cultures, areas undergoing tremendous scholarly growth. The contributors present us with thoughtful discussions of how to listen to and work with the new material from the Roman frontiers.

The decision to bring together specialists in Greater Arabia and north-east Africa offers readers an accessible experience of cross-fertilization. How the comparative approach can clarify and support conclusions reached through specialized study in one field is exemplified in the “General Introduction” by Dijkstra and Fisher, particularly in the incisive section on Arabia highlighting the “need for imprecision” when interpreting evidence about the Arabs, and also Dijkstra’s chapter in which he discusses Blemmyan, Noubadian and Arab leaders’ use of inscriptions. The inclusion of anthropologists of tribal societies makes the experience all the richer, although few of the contributors have followed the editors’ lead in trying to engage with the anthropologists’ insights.

The difficult title Inside and Out is intended to have a double aim: it is about spaces—frontier zones of Egypt and Arabia with and without the Roman Empire—and it is about sources—writings about and archaeological evidence for frontier interactions. But labels are never satisfactory, as the editors are fully aware (31). The binary conceptualization inherent in the title is tackled head on by some of the contributors, glided over by others. The title flags up problems of interpretation from the outset. While the editors conclude that “the distinction between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ sources is a useful heuristic device,” ultimately the usefulness may be in showing how unuseful such a binary mode of thought is—however playfully conceived in its origin—in achieving the “interlocking” and “nuanced” view of interactions the editors and contributors seek.

All of the contributors show how far we are now from a linear limes. Barbarian stereotypes are seen in the context of each author’s intent, and the variety of Roman/non-Roman relationships on the ground is amply illustrated. Hélène Cuvigny and Helmut Satzinger on ostraka and papyrological evidence from the Egyptian Eastern Desert are especially illuminating on the range of human interactions: we find wine-drinking desert dwellers, fish-selling Ἄραβες, brigands and smugglers, with a variety of names that confirms the fluidity of cultural exchange and ethnic identity. Read together with Michael Macdonald on Safaitic rock inscriptions one hears the common emotions of fear and loneliness that emerge in both zones of interaction. These insights are made more useful to the historian by the anthropologists Philip Carl Salzman and Stuart Tyson Smith whose work focuses on ever-evolving relationships rather than geographical frontiers. Particularly helpful in pulling together the fragmentary evidence all the contributors present is Smith’s attention to both “new and longstanding cultural entanglements—an accumulation of individual choices stretching back millennia” (109).

A common area of entanglement is language. Bi-lingualism, bi-culturalism, and multi-scriptism emerge as windows onto the experiments in adaptation that characterize the late antique period. This is apparent in the Egyptian sphere, but no one knows better the importance of this language- and script-shifting than Christian Robin, Michael Macdonald and Robert Hoyland whose assessments, and re-assessments...