?This massive work encompasses a comprehensive geographical and temporal survey of Greek and Roman relations with the ?German world? from early Greek times through to the Carolingian period. It forms a study based primarily on documentary sources, comprising histories, laws, charters, inscriptions, coins, place-names, and loan-words, and focusing on cultural exchanges and interactions in the field of literature, language, religion, theology, and ideology. Luiselli admits to the existence of a variety of published works on these themes, but notes how so many are regionalised to the degree that overlapping analyses are difficult to achieve. Furthermore, existing studies are not always balanced in terms of observing cultural impacts and reactions from both the Greek/Roman and the Germanic side (8-9). The very size of this book highlights the depth of coverage that L. seeks to offer. Storia Culturale is divided into three mains sections. Part 1, L?Età più Antica (?), examines Greek contacts with and concepts of the Northern world and in particular offers a detailed discussion to the northern seas in the second half of the fourth century. The widening horizons are then examined in Part 2, divided into ?Versante Greco-Romano? (?) in which are discussed the developments in the concept of ? barbarian? in the Classical world and the means of exploring and exploiting the barbarian tribes, and ?Versante Germanico? (?) which analyses the early sequences of acculturation amongst the numerous groupings. (?) The very substantial Part 3, L?Età Romanobarbarica (?), comprises two key-sections, covering the Migration Period and, in greatest depth, the successor kingdoms (?), thus covering the third to the eighth centuries A.D. L. Offers ?l?Età Romanobarbarica? as an alternative to the established term ?Late Antiquity?, highlighting how the latter largely obscures the onset of barbarian rule in the former Western Empire. This time-period marks the reversal of power (?). Detailed coverage is given in Part 3, ch.3 to Vandal Africa, Visigothic Spain, Burgundia, Frankish Gaul. L. examines the various facets of acculturation or resistance to this: vitally significant is the conflict between Arian, pagan, and Catholic and the sequence in many cases of conversion to Catholic Christianity; likewise the adoption of Latin at all levels, from laws to personal names, or the survival of the respective German tongues. (?) Throughout, the discussion of the documentary evidence is thorough and rewarding. (? ) As it stands, Storia Cultural provides any reader with a series of fascination insights into the Germanic world and the constantly changing relationships with Rome and with Roman culture before, during, and after the Migration era.? (NEIL CHRISTIE in The Journal of Roman Studies, 1995, pp.262-263).