Book review: The Empire Stops Here

The Romans called their empire "dominion without limit" (imperium sine fine), said Tom Holland in the Guardian. But "the truth, of course, was somewhat different" – as proved by its "astounding frontier, snaking for thousands upon thousands of miles across three continents".

Philip Parker’s "extraordinary" new book is the result of his ambition to trace the entire length of the frontier, from Hadrian’s Wall – via Europe, Turkey and the Near East – to Morocco. "I have encountered more than five centuries of Roman history in some 21 modern countries," he writes, "covering a range of climatic variations from a snowstorm in Switzerland to a sandstorm at 45C in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis, and have covered more than 20,000km on the ground."

Part travelogue, part history, part guide, the book follows this epic trip; along the way Parker builds up a fascinating picture of the Roman past, examining aspects "from Mithraism to gladiators to baths".

It’s an excellent idea for a book, said Brian Schofield in the Sunday Times, and Parker has many interesting things to say about the edges of empire and the Barbarians at the gates, such as the Huns and the Vandals; he speculates that the fort at Pevensey in East Sussex may have been the last Roman outpost to fall in Britain, "not unlike the roof of the Saigon embassy".

But his "diligence" becomes exhausting. "For while visiting every single column, arch or altar along the frontier may have been an admirable personal ambition, it proves an excessive literary one", bloating his book to more than 500 pages, plus footnotes. "It also becomes hard not to believe that Roman archaeological sites should be placed, alongside sex and professional football, in that category of subjects that can be diverting to look at, but become unavoidably dull when described at length in prose."

"This is non-fiction which edges into reference," said Stuart Kelly in the Scotsman. Parker is "no Bill Bryson – nor would I want him to be", but his encyclopaedic book "sacrifices story for data". This is a great pity, when many of the stories that he does tell – of Zenobia, the rebellious desert queen, or Decebalus, the Romanian Braveheart – are "wonderful". The Empire Stops Here is a "magnificent" but "frustrating" book.

The Empire Stops Here, by Philip Parker, 656pp (Jonathan Cape, £25) The Week Bookshop £22.50 (incl p&p) ·