Research Catalog

Title

In search of ancient North Africa : a history in six lives / Barnaby Rogerson ; with photographs by Don McCullin.

Author

Rogerson, Barnaby

Publication

• London : Haus Publishing Ltd., 2017.
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

McCullin, Don, 1935-

Description

334 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

"For forty years, Barnaby Rogerson has travelled across North Africa, making sense of the region's complex and fascinating history as both a writer and a guide. Throughout that time there have always been a handful of stories he could not pin into neat, tidy narratives; stories that were not distinctly good or bad, tragic or pathetic, selfish or heroic, malicious or noble. This book, neither a work of history nor travel writing, is a journey into the ruins of a landscape in an attempt to make sense of those stories through the lives of six historical figures, five men and one woman: A sacrificial refugee (Queen Dido); a prisoner of war who became a compliant tool of the Roman Empire (King Juba II); an unpromising provincial who, as Emperor, brought the Roman Empire to its dazzling apogee (Septimius Severus); an intellectual careerist who became a bishop and a saint (St Augustine); the greatest general the world has ever known (Hannibal); and the Berber Cavalry General who eventually defeated him (Masinissa). All six of these lives are surrounded with as much myth as fact, but the destinies of these North African figures remain highly relevant today. Their descendants are faced with many of the same choices: Should you stay pure to your own culture and fight against the power of the West, or should you study and assimilate to this other culture, and utilize its skills? Will it greet you as an ally only to own you as a slave? In between these life stories, Rogerson explores the ruins of ancient sites, which tell their own tales, and reveals the multiple interconnections that bind the culture of this region with the wider world, particularly the spiritual traditions of the ancient Near East."--Publisher description.

Subjects

• Africa, North
• Juba > II, > King of Mauretania, > approximately 50 B.C.-approximately 24 A.D
• Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430
• Africa, North > History > To 647
• Geta Lucius Septimius, Emperor of Rome, 189-212
• Hannibal, 247 B.C.-182 B.C
• Masinissa, King of Numidia, approximately 240 B.C.-148 B.C
• History
• To 647

Genre/Form

History.

Call Number

JFE 18-2947

ISBN

• 190996154X
• 9781909961548

OCLC

990025474

Author

Rogerson, Barnaby, author.

Title

In search of ancient North Africa : a history in six lives / Barnaby Rogerson ; with photographs by Don McCullin.

Publisher

London : Haus Publishing Ltd., 2017.

Copyright Date

©2017

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Chronological Term

To 647

Added Author

McCullin, Don, 1935- photographer.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-2947