Kaiti’s Reviews > The Far Edges of the Known World: Life Beyond the Borders of Ancient Civilization > Status Update

Crocodilopolis is a fantastic name for a city and we definitely need to bring that back somewhere.

"We have been encouraged to see the history of Africa as a passive participant in European or Mediterranean history, rather than a part of a dynamic exchange of cultures and stories. [...] Much of the African continent [...] is ignored or even discarded, unless it plays a part in the story of either Rome or Greece."👌👌👌

"Official law is not always reflected in social reality." (In the context of "just because a law said soldiers couldn't marry doesn't mean they weren't having relationships and kids anyways")

This book is very insightful in the shortcomings of previous histories that touch on the regions and periods it explores!

👌 the introduction spending a significant amount of time getting into how the edges of a society are defined by what people in that society consider to be the centre, how Greek and Roman sources have been emphasized to the detriment of others, and how studying interactions between rulers tells us nothing about how average citizens of different cultures interacted. So good!