ABSTRACT
The conception of geography in the Roman world could at times be very physical, as rivers, mountains, and other natural formations served as ideological borders in the Roman mind. The physicality of geographical separation was also visible in the people who lived within and outside the Empire, as in the style of dress, cuisine, and preferences in personal grooming. Ethnographic images often went hand in hand with physical descriptions of the land. Thus geography was also very much imagined, in the sense that the borders or frontiers of the empire were conceptualized and demarcated by such aspects of culture, as language, urban topography, religion, and the level of acceptance of these cultural markers by any given group of people. Descriptions or images of barbarians can be found in a wide range of classical literature and they often served to highlight the different and uncivil behavior of outsiders. But more importantly, emphasis on the differences of outsiders reinforced the norms of Roman civilization. The image of the savage barbarian who lived beyond the borders of the empire was a reminder of the superiority of the culture within the borders. Such distinctions also helped to define the enemy and in turn to justify acts of violence against him. In reality, however, such sharp lines of demarcation were never so clear. The borders of the Empire were perhaps better described as zones of interaction and the shifting frontiers of the Empire were not as rigid as one might imagine from the sources.1 Nevertheless, the reality of the frontiers as borderlands or zones of interaction did not hinder the development of a mentality or ideology of separation and difference.
