This book is a study of the long-term historical geography of Asia Minor, from the fourth century BC to the thirteenth century AD. Using an astonishing breadth of sources, ranging from Byzantine monastic archives to Latin poetic texts, ancient land records to hagiographic biographies, Peter Thonemann reveals the complex and fascinating interplay between the natural environment and human activities in the Maeander valley. Both a large-scale regional history and a profound meditation on the role played by geography in human history, this book is an essential contribution to the history of the Eastern Mediterranean in Graeco-Roman antiquity and the Byzantine Middle Ages.

Prizes

Winner of Runciman Award, Anglo-Hellenic League 2012

'This is a book to celebrate. Consistently readable, conceptually sophisticated, uncompromisingly scholarly, beautifully illustrated, and elegantly produced by Cambridge University Press (which has done an outstanding job), Thonemann's Maeander sets new standards for regional studies. If anyone were in doubt about the intellectual panache of classics and ancient history in the second decade of the 21st c., here is all the proof they need.' Mark Whittow, Journal of Roman Archaeology

Peter Thonemann teaches ancient history at Wadham College, Oxford University. He is co-author of the widely acclaimed first volume of the Penguin History of Europe, The Birth of Classical Europe: A History From Troy to Augustine (with Simon Price). The Maeander was awarded the Hellenic Foundation's 2006 Award for the best ancient/classical thesis in Hellenic Studies, and Oxford University's Conington Prize for 2009.