I would like to recommend an excellent book to visitors to this website. It is Barbarians, by Terry Jones and Alan Ereira (published by BBC books in 2006). This book documents much evidence that the nations and peoples labeled as “barbarians” by the writers of the Roman Empire were not barbarians at all! Indeed, some of these societies were more sophisticated and civilized than the Romans. However the Roman version of history has made it into our history texts because they were usually the victors, and history texts have uncritically accepted Roman propaganda as factual historical accounts.
The book, Barbarians, examines the reality of the culture and societies of the Celts, Gauls, Dacians, Goths, Parthians and Vandals, showing that they were not barbarians at all. For example, the European Celts (which included the Gauls) had sophisticated roads and metalworking skills, as did the Dacians of modern Balkan Europe. Both these nations had the misfortune of having a great deal of wealth in gold…for which the Romans greatly lusted. The Romans stole their gold, destroyed their nations and justified it by “spinning” their callous invasions as wars against mere “barbarians.” Jones’ and Ereira’s book notes that the Gauls were literate, did a mathematical census of their people and knew Greek. The Dacians had a wealthy society which was more sophisticated (and certainly more civilized) than the Romans, but the Romans so destroyed the Dacians that few have ever heard of it.
This book also documents new information about the Parthians, which are identified as a powerful empire of the reinvigorated ten tribes of Israel in my books. It also notes the feudal structure of the Parthians, and it comments on an advanced construction technology which surpassed Roman skill. Jones and Ereira write the following about the vaulted roof structure invented by the Parthian engineers:
“Such roofs had become possible because they [the Parthians] had invented a technology that allowed them to hold blocks in place during construction without a timber scaffold. They put them together with the builder’s equivalent of super-glue, an instantly drying cement unknown in the West…this gave rise to an entirely new architecture, as it became possible to create high paraboloid domes…Quadratic equations and trigonometric curves needed to be resolved in order to keep the roofs over people’s head. The mathematical expertise of…the ancient Near East was up to the task; Roman mathematics most certainly was not.” [page 167]
This book is an excellent complement to some of the information presented in my books about the Romans, Parthians, Goths, Germans, etc. It does not place the information in a biblical context, but is an excellent rejoinder to the politically correct textbooks which have perpetuated the propagandized version of history foisted on us by the Romans.
This book is also the basis of a four-part, satellite TV series entitled “Barbarian Lives” which is hosted by Terry Jones. His irreverent, iconoclastic style of presentation adds to the enjoyment of the televised information. I highly recommend both the book and the TV series. I had bought and read the book, but I wish to warmly thank a reader of my books, Charlotte Grantham in Ohio, for drawing my attention to the fact that there was a companion TV series about the book on satellite TV!
–Steven Collins
