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Title: Imperialistic Perspective
Review: Mr. Millar's book is quite old fashioned. Its method and perspective are right out of the Victorian age. This historian obviously is unable to take the perspective of the many diverse inhabitants of the ancient Near East. For instance, his results on 'identity' are based mainly on inscriptions. That is a problem because Greek and Latin inscriptions by no means represent the views of the main bulk of Near Eastern populations; rather, they tend to be written by the minority of faithful servants to the Roman rule, i.e. those people who profited from the imperial system. Mr. Millar admits that he had great problems with the subject because it was new to him. He would have had much less problems if he had learned to take the perspective of members of other cultures. It is somewhat funny that at times of academic cultural studies where perspective changes are literally exercised, and much help is available, such a single minded book is possible.
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