?C.R. Whittaker offers a collection of his essays on Roman foreign relations, frontier society, and the eastern trade written since his 1994 monograph ?Frontiers of the Roman Empire?. . (?) W. has risen from being one of many controversialist working on the frontier to being the fair-minded chronicler and wise arbiter of the field. W. begins (?) with an admirable introductory survey entitled ?Where are the Roman Frontiers Now?? (?) ?Mental Maps and Frontiers? surveys Roman mapping technologies and moves beyond the usual gloomy assessment to investigate the positive consequences of Roman mapping habits for their understanding of their borders. And last on the strategy theme ?Roman Frontiers and European Perceptions? places the whole debate in its modern historical context. A pair of papers treat India. (?) The rest of the papers are more various. ?The Importance of the Invasions in the Later Roman Empire? is a useful survey of the evidence that the invading barbarian forces of Late Antiquity were not so very big or destructive after all, and a fine examination of the reasons why late antique authors nonetheless represented them as such.? (J.E. LENDON in The Journal of Roman Studies, 2005, pp.257-258). ?This is an important and useful book. Let us hope that Dr Whittaker will continue to develop his ideas, especially those on personification in ethnography and Roman relations with peoples outside the formal boundaries of the actual provinces.? (D.B. SADDINGTON in The Classical Review (New Series, 2005, p.262).