'B. treats 500 years of Roman interaction with northerners, from the day of the Cimbri and Teutones until the morrow of the Gothic influx. (...) The principles first: (i) the most abiding contacts between Romans and northerners were those occurring in the Roman army; and (ii) the interactions were not the result of massive intrusions of northerners into Roma territory. Borrowing from the Greeks, the romans called the northerners 'barbari'- savages, stammering brutes. The cultural animus behind such a term is evident, and thus B. keeps a distance from it. He prefers another Roman characterization, one which the supposedly speech-impaired roughnecks were disposed to accept. The northerners were clients, their patrons at first being individual (and distinguished) Romans and later the Roman state. The Roman government maintained treaty relations with a leader, the principal client, and by extension the people he ruled. Now, having set perceptions and principles in order (pp.1-41 (...), B, is ready to generate the two dramas. From Caesar's Rhineland campaigns until the aftermath of Julian's victory at Argentoratum, the mingling of Romans and their neighbors in Northern Frontierland produced a composite society (...). Meanwhile, the second and perhaps more chaotic drama was unfolding in the centers of roman power. In the time of the Roman Dominate, some of the habits and even the players from Northern Frontierland came to the top of Roman society. (...) In general, B. has presented a remarkably even-handed portrait of Roman-northern action and reaction, as portrait made effective especially by the novel distancing from the Roman conception of 'the barbarian'. (...) B. has written a useful book.' (FRANK M. CLOVER in The Classical Review (New Series), 2005, pp.258-60).