When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a city by the Black Sea, he found himself in despair facing the inhospitable and savage environment. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid believed that civilization stopped at the borders of his world. Was Ovid's exile really as terrible as he claimed? What was it really like to live on the fringes of ancient empires, beyond the borders of the known world?

Thanks to archaeological excavations, we are now able to understand that the borders of the empires, which we consider the "heart" of civilization, were in fact thriving areas. Places where the contrast between "civilized" and "barbarian" gradually faded, where rules did not always apply, where different cultures married, and where nomadic tribes built their own cities.

Owen Rees takes us from the sandy roads traveled by caravans in Morocco, to the frozen winters of the Black Sea, from Co Loa in the Red River Valley in Vietnam to rain-swept fortresses south of Hadrian's Wall, and explores powerful empires and diverse peoples across Europe, Asia, and Africa through a perspective that will help us understand the ancient world.