Amazon.com description: Product Description: From 27 B.C. to A.D. 117, the Roman dreams of boundless empire began to falter. The Caesars had to accept the scale & intractability of the problems posed by the barbarians. For the Romans this was a time when power was passing; for the barbarians it was a time when internal stresses & fear of Roman aggression were creating shifts in the tribal equilibrium. This book sees the clash of cultures from the standpoint of 4 people who ventured beyond the Roman empire. Each portrait reveals different aspects of the Sarmatian, German, & Celtic peoples facing the empire s European frontiers. Together they provide a rich portrait of the classical & Iron Age worlds. Illustrated.