IndigenousGuides - Writing Imperialism and Local Knowledge: Indigenous Guides in Greek and Roman Historiography

This project sets a new decolonial agenda for studying ancient imperialism and historiography, focusing on the overlooked contributions of indigenous local guides in the Greek and Roman narrative sources (historiography) of imperial expansion. Guides could make or break an expedition: they influenced intercultural relationships, shaped imperial designs, and contributed to Greco- Roman geographical and cultural knowledge. While a colonially-influenced European scholarly tradition has conventionally viewed imperialism through the lens of the Greco-Roman coloniser, IndigenousGuides centres the colonised. It will provide the first detailed database and analysis of indigenous guides in Greek and Roman historical writing, ranging from Herodotus (5th century BCE) to Cassius Dio (2nd century CE). While Ancient Historians have neglected guides, in recent years historians of (Early) Modern imperialism have demonstrated the contributions of indigenous intermediaries, whilst developing strategies of reading 'against the grain' of colonialist source material. IndigenousGuides will exploit these advances for the benefit of Ancient History by employing a 'soft' comparative historical approach: using modern material not to "fill gaps" in the ancient evidence, but to generate new questions, with conclusions grounded in the ancient sources. Comparison with the evidence and debates of modern imperial settings (Columbus and Cortés in the Americas, British colonialism in the Pacific and South Asia) will illuminate neglected strands of ancient imperialist-guide relationships. In addition to academic and public-facing publications, final outputs will include two open-access datasets of indigenous guides (one ancient, one comparative). These will lay the groundwork for future research by historians of the ancient Mediterranean, as well as providing an ancient foundation for historians of later periods to build upon.