The Mediterranean Sea From Alexander To The Rise Of Rome: The Hellenistic Age, 360–133 BC

By Mark Luttenberger

This book is designed to describe the environmental, political, socioeconomic, and military life of the inhabitants that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea from the fourth through the second centuries BC. This story relates the complex dynamic interrelationships among the people and states of the Mediterranean basin.

The book explores the greater Mediterranean world that stretched from India to Spain. It begins with a review of some of the geographical, environmental, and structural characteristics of the Mediterranean basin. The balance of the book then proceeds to trace the political, military, and economic development of this region. We review the rise of Macedon under Philip II through the conquests of Alexander the Great. In the eastern basin, the development and conflicts of the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Antigonid dynasties are then traced.

We then turn the page and discuss the rise of Carthage and Rome as republics in the western basin. Next, the conflict between these two powers is analyzed which leaves Rome supreme in the west. The next chapters narrate the struggle between Rome and the Hellenistic kingdoms for dominance in the east. The book concludes with Roman supremacy established throughout the Mediterranean by the end of the second century. From the apex conqueror of antiquity Alexander the Great, we conclude with the establishment of the apex empire that was Rome.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662469121

Book preview

Chapter One

Characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea

Geography

The Mediterranean Sea borders three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia (Near East). This vibrant body of water encompasses about 970,000 mi² (2,500,000 km²) with an average depth of 4,900 feet (1,500 meters). Its deepest point is measured approximately 17,280 feet (5,267 meters) in the Ionian Sea off western Greece.³ Stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar (known as the Pillars of Hercules/Heracles in antiquity) between Spain and Morocco in the west to the Levant in the east, the distance is about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) across.⁴ It lies between 30o to 46o N latitude and its longitude is 6o W and 36o E. The width varies from about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) at its widest (Venice to the shore of Libya) to about 96 miles (155 km) between the Straits of Sicily that separates the southern shore of Sicily from the Tunisian coast. Although small in size in comparison to the surface area of the oceans 208,319,663 mi² (336,258,000 km²), it often took months for a round trip of ancient sailing vessels to travel its length. However, this vast expanse was the great unifier that connected the numerous civilizations that surrounded its shores.

Figure 1. Map of Mediterranean countries with modern and ancient names

This deep blue sea has only two outlets to the oceans, one natural and the other man-made. These exits are the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean and the Suez Canal in Egypt, which provides access to the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea. Not until 1869 with the opening of the Suez Canal was there an eastern opening to the outside world. Ancient sources report a few hearty and adventuresome mariners from Phoenicia, Carthage, Egypt, and Greece sailed into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the last centuries BC. Their mission was exploration to develop new trade routes to India. As a result, the east and west coasts of Africa to the equator became better known. The west coast of Europe to Great Britain was also explored. Despite limited explorations of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea was viewed by most inhabitants as the center of their world. This sea could be either friend or foe.⁵

What people knew of distant lands was more myth than fact. To ancient travelers, mariners, scientists, and scholars, their geographical understanding of mother Earth was limited. Ancient writers of geography rarely personally explored the world beyond the familiar Mediterranean Sea and its adjacent lands, seas, and the connecting rivers which flowed from the hinterland. Maps and charts of land and sea were rudimentary at best. On an east-west axis, ancient geographers describe the inhabited lands from India to Spain. On a north-south axis, they describe the regions from northern Europe (Britain to Russia north of the Black Sea) to Ethiopia. The first century BC geographer Strabo believed the size of the inhabited world was seventy thousand stadia long and thirty thousand stadia wide.⁶ Ignorant of the compass and other navigational equipment, ancient mariners and explorers relied on the stars to locate their positions. It was believed that a vast ocean surrounded the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Strabo writes:

That the inhabited world is an island must be assumed both from the senses as well as experience. Everywhere that it has been possible for men to access the farthest points of the earth, the sea has been found, which we call Okeanos. Wherever it is not possible to make use of the senses, reason shows it. (Strabo.1.1.8)⁷

Few could conceptualize the actual size of the known world. The sizes of Europe, Africa, and Asia were severely underestimated. The western hemisphere, Australia, and the Far East were unknown. The northern arctic region was mentioned, but Antarctica was merely speculated. Africa south of the Sahara desert; Russia, except for the Scythian tribes along the northern coast of the Black Sea; and northern Europe were little explored. Although India was known from Middle East intermediaries that traveled and traded with these distant people, knowledge was extremely limited and spiced with wild stories about the inhabitants, flora, and fauna that lived there. A few of their goods (silks, spices, exotic foods, works of art, etc.) graced the homes of the wealthy and royal houses. Not until Alexander the Great’s conquest of India (modern Pakistan) in 326 BC was this land opened to western exploration.⁸

The Mediterranean Sea is a complex interactive environmental system that encompasses numerous subsystems with their individual characteristics.⁹ What are these various subsystems? In broad terms they include the sea, land, rivers, islands, desert, climate, flora and fauna, urbanization, rural life, transhumance, etc. All these aspects impacted the development of the numerous and varied cultures and civilizations that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea. These characteristics influenced whether individuals survived as small rural farmers, large landowners, fishermen, pastoralists, craftsmen, industrialists, mariners, merchants, financiers, miners, lumberjacks, and numerous other occupations. Their occupations often determined whether the people were rich, poor, or somewhere in between. These occupations also often dictated whether people were urban dwellers, lived in the countryside, or were nomads moving from mountain to valley, desert to coast, city to city, land to land, and coast to coast.

In all settled regions, a wealthy minority developed into a ruling aristocracy or oligarchy or served their local monarchy. The vast majority often remained poor independent subsistence farmers, nomadic herders, unskilled laborers, or if their fortunes sank lower, they became serfs or slaves. In most cases, their voices were little heard within their societies. A small minority, for lack of a better description, fell into a middling class that lived above the subsistence level but did not live the life of leisure to participate in the political realm of their city or territorial state. These people were often skilled craftsmen, merchants, shipowners, financiers, small-scale industrialists, skilled soldiers and/or mercenaries, etc. Depending on the political and social structure of their society, they may or may not have played an important part in the affairs of their community or state.

This brief outline provides the groundwork for our discussion of the Mediterranean world during the Hellenistic period. However, before we can explore that world, we must look in greater detail at multiple characteristics to properly set the table for our exploration of the political, economic, and military interaction of the Mediterranean people.

The Sea

Although termed the Mediterranean Sea, this maritime system is actually a collection of smaller subsystem seas that are connected through numerous straits that often dictated the sea-lanes that mariners traversed in their commercial or military voyages. Often divided into an eastern and western basin, separated by the island of Sicily, these two basins followed separate historical paths until unified by the power of Rome. However, under the Roman Empire, a Latin west and a Greek east remained distinct halves with distinct characteristics. Regardless of which basin, these individual sections at one time or another throughout history have played a dominant role in the life of the Mediterranean Sea.

Although the Black Sea (Euxine in antiquity) by geographical definition is not a subsystem of the Mediterranean Sea, from a historical perspective, it is an integral part of the Mediterranean community. Separated from the Mediterranean world by the Bosporus Straits at Istanbul (founded as Byzantium by the ancient Greeks and converted by the Romans into Constantinople in the fourth century AD), the cities and inhabitants of the surrounding lands had strong integrated commercial and cultural ties with their southern neighbors in Greece and Turkey (ancient Asia Minor/Anatolia). As a result, the Black Sea will be mentioned often in our history of the Mediterranean.

From east to west, these unique seas begin with the Aegean Sea that separates Greece from Turkey. The Aegean was the heart of the Greek world from the Mycenaean period onwards. From the Greek mainland, the numerous small islands, coastal Asia Minor, and the north Aegean coast, the ancient Hellenes created their world of city-states (poleis) during the first half of the first millennia BC. As one travels north to the Black Sea from the Aegean, the voyage passes through the narrow straits of the Hellespont/ Dardanelles that separates the Gallipoli peninsula (ancient Thracian Chersonese) from Turkey (Asia Minor), enters the Sea of Marmara, and finally enters the Bosporus Straits at Istanbul before entering the Black Sea.

The Aegean allowed ancient mariners and travelers to sail either east-west or north-south as they island-hopped across the water. Prior to the Hellenistic Age (323–31 BC), ancient ships, commercial and military were usually small vessels that carried limited provisions and were designed to sail near coasts. Many ships were undecked, which exposed their crews and cargoes to the elements. As a result, they were not seaworthy in either bad weather or the stormy winter months (October to May). The lack of reliable navigational technology further inhibited mariners from venturing into the open sea. Since all ships possessed minimal sails, warships were primarily propelled by oarsmen while cruising and always in battle. Consequently, standard operating procedure for most ancient ships involved night stoppage in protective harbors, bays, islands, etc. to gather food and water and allow the men to rest and sleep on land.

Traveling southeast from the Aegean, we enter the Sea of Crete and then the eastern Mediterranean that borders Syria, Lebanon, Israel (Palestine), and Egypt. This region does not have a local name for the sea. Traveling west, the eastern Mediterranean borders the shores of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Prior to the Classical Age (479–323 BC), the Phoenicians dominated this area commercially, and their vessels formed the core of the Persian Empire’s navy. During much of the first millennium, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians vied for commercial supremacy.¹⁰

Traveling westward around the Peloponnese of Greece and then north, we enter the Ionian Sea that separates Sicily from Greece. Containing many islands adjacent to the west coast of Greece, the large island of Corfu (ancient Corcyra), across from the northwest coast of Greece, became a commercial center, and its port became a major stopping point on the voyage to Italy and Sicily. The wealth, gained from commerce with the Balkan tribes, allowed Corcyra to become a major naval power in the Greek world in the fifth century BC.¹¹

Continuing north along the west coast of Greece and passing through the Straits of Otranto, we enter the Adriatic Sea that separates the numerous Balkan countries from Italy. At its northern point rests the Queen of the Adriatic, Venice. In its heyday from the late Middle Ages until the seventeenth century AD, Venice controlled the trade to the Middle East. However, in our period of discussion, Venice did not yet exist, and the northern Adriatic was a wilderness with limited commercial value. Unlike the Aegean, the Adriatic favored travel along a north-south axis since few good harbors existed along either coastline. Prior to the rise of Rome in the late fourth century, the Greeks dominated trade with the eastern Italian coast. During the first half of the fourth century BC, the tyrant of Syracuse Dionysius I tried to establish an empire in the Adriatic based on the Balkan coast. He failed. Not until the Roman conquest of Greece and Macedonia in the second century BC did the people of the Adriatic become integrated into the wider Mediterranean world of commerce.

Leaving the Adriatic and sailing through the Straits of Messina (Messana in antiquity) that separates Sicily from the toe of Italy, we enter the western Mediterranean Sea and its most famous part, the Tyrrhenian Sea, which separates the west coast of Italy from the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. During the classical period, the Etruscans, Carthaginians, and Greeks from southern Italy competed to control this region.¹² The Greeks lost out to the Etruscans and Carthaginians by the end of the sixth century. The Romans then dominated the sea after their victory in two wars against Carthage in the third century.

Continuing the northward journey, we enter the Ligurian Sea between the northern coast of Corsica and the northwestern coast of Italy and the southeast coast of France (ancient Gaul). Centered between the Italian (ancient Ligurian) city of Genoa and French Marseilles (ancient Massilia founded in the sixth century BC) at the mouth of the Rhone River, this passage became a major trade route. Massilia developed its trade with the Gauls of the Rhone River valley and the Iberians of the east coast of Spain.

Last but not least, off the eastern coast of Spain (ancient Iberia), we encounter the Balearic Sea and the Alboran Sea between the north coast of Morocco and Spain prior to entering the Straits of Gibraltar (Pillars of Hercules). These seas were well-traveled as the silver mines and agricultural valleys of Iberia were exploited by the native tribes, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans throughout the first millennium BC.

If one sailed due west from Egypt, along the North African coast and through the Straits of Sicily that separates the south coast of Sicily from the Tunisian coast, we enter the southern half of the western Mediterranean. This body of water has no regional name. These shores are part of the modern countries of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Under the Roman Empire, the fertile regions of Tunisia and Libya (ancient North Africa) became a breadbasket to feed the citizens of Rome.

In summary, these seas constitute the many subsystems of the Mediterranean. For mariners, these seas displayed both unique and universal natural characteristics of winds, currents, and weather that dictated which sea-lanes and when could be traveled with the greatest security. The winter months were the universal enemy of sailing and trade. Storms and rough seas were frequent in all sectors. As a result, commercial and military ventures basically ceased. Despite an occasional violent storm, summer months were the safest for ships to venture forward. Thus the seasonal weather pattern dictated the ebb and flow of commerce and war.

The Land

Besides the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, the land surrounding the Mediterranean can be divided into many sectors. There are five peninsulas with their distinct civilizations that define and divide the Mediterranean Sea. All are composed of high mountains, lush green valleys, large dry areas often similar to deserts, rivers that provide access to the hinterland, and coasts with excellent harbors. All these factors played a role in determining human settlement and economic exchange. These peninsulas are from east to west, Asia Minor/Anatolia (Turkey), the Balkan (Greece, Macedonia, Albania, etc.), the Italian (Italy), the Tunisian (Tunisia), and the Iberian (Spain and Portugal). To quote the French historian Fernand Braudel:

Nonetheless, the peninsulas are the Mediterranean regions which are richest in men and in potential. They are key actors, who have always played leading roles, in turn gathering strength and then expending it.¹³

Throughout antiquity, all were subdivided among numerous tribes, city-states, kingdoms, and eventually empires. None were occupied by a homogeneous people. This ethnic diversification contributed to the political, diplomatic, and military turmoil as well as the economic and cultural exchange that went hand in hand with the interaction of these people. Within each peninsula, the political, economic, and military fortunes varied among the inhabitants. From dominance to subordination and back, these political entities passed through numerous stages with the changing of the seasons. Tribes, city-states, and kingdoms intermingled in the evolutionary process as time passed by. Only with the development of the Roman Empire, in the last centuries before the birth of Christ, were these lands unified under one superstate. But this was a long and bloody process with much human suffering. Two thousand years later, these modern states still suffer from ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, and political conflict. The sad narrative of history often reminds us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Only the names, faces, and details of interaction change.

Asia Minor (Turkey)

Asia Minor, also called Anatolia, is surrounded by the Black (Euxine) Sea, Aegean Sea, and eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on the south and east by mountain ranges that provided only a few passes that allowed the flow of inhabitants and goods to and from the various states in Syria, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian (Persian) plateau. The lands east and north of the Black Sea were occupied by numerous wild mountain tribes and the various nomads of the Russian steppes often identified as Scythians by the ancient Greek writers.

Along the northern and western shores of Asia Minor, numerous Greek poleis (city-states), such as Sinope, Trebizond, Miletus, Ephesus, etc., intermingled with the natives of the hinterland ruled by local kings or governors (satraps) after the rise of the Persian Empire and then the Hellenistic kings after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Throughout the centuries, these lands were known as Cappadocia, Lydia, Phrygia, Pontus, Caria, Cilicia, Armenia, Bithynia, Pergamum, etc. Great native cities developed at Sardis (Lydia), Halicarnassus (Caria), Tarsus (Cilicia), etc.

Other Greeks poleis developed along the western and northern shores of the Black Sea. They intermingled with the local Thracian and Scythian tribes (modern Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and southern Russia). Although political relations were often difficult, both sides formed strong trade relations. The Greeks imported food, wool, minerals, and other products while they exported luxury items such as pottery, fine cloth, and wine.

The bountiful grain harvests of the Crimea became a breadbasket for the Hellenic world. The mainland Greek commercial centers of Athens and Corinth imported grain from the fifth century on to feed their growing populations.¹⁴ In times of crop failure, other Greeks cities were also forced to import grain. Fruit, fish, meat, metals, timber, etc. were eventually imported in ever-increasing volumes from the Black Sea region as the centuries passed by and the great commercial centers grew.

The Balkans

The Balkan world (Hellas, Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Illyria, etc.) was surrounded by the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic Seas. By 500 BC, Hellas (Greek mainland and islands of the Aegean and Ionian Seas) was a land politically, militarily, and socially organized into independent city-states (poleis), tribes, and federations/leagues. The mountain range encompassing Mt. Olympus, home of the Greek gods, was the boundary that separated Hellas from Macedonia. This region is a mountainous terrain interspersed with many foothills, valleys, and small plains. This terrain impacted the settlement pattern of the inhabitants. Most inhabitants lived in small towns and villages and cultivated the surrounding hinterland. By the seventh century BC, larger cities began to develop in these valleys or along the coast where good harbors existed. These larger urban centers eventually evolved into city-states called poleis by the Hellenes. By the fifth century, the Hellenic world was dotted with hundreds of poleis of varying sizes and population. The major poleis of Athens, Corinth, Thebes, Sparta, Chalcis, Tegea, Mantinea, Elis, and others came to dominate the political and economic landscape.

Figure 2. Map of Macedon and southern Balkan World in the fourth century BC

Although most Greeks were small subsistence farmers, others became traders, merchants, craftsmen, day laborers, seafarers, etc. living in the great urban and commercial centers such as Athens, Corinth, Thebes, Megara, and Pherae that attained their greatest prosperity after the Persian Wars (490–479 BC). Although the tentacles of their trade relations stretched throughout the Mediterranean Sea as far west as Gades in Iberia (Spain), their strongest ties were with the eastern Mediterranean basin. Italy, especially the Greek and Etruscan cities, Sicily, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the Crimea in the Black Sea were the foci for imports and exports.

Proud of their common cultural heritage, the Greeks never united politically. Their concept of citizenship centered on the free and independent polis. They were citizens of their city first. If a member of a federation, their loyalty remained first with their city. Unable to unite into a larger political entity, the Greeks eventually succumbed to the larger territorial states, first the Macedon of Philip II (359–336 BC), later the Antigonid, Seleucid, and Ptolemaic kingdoms of the Hellenistic Age (323–31 BC), and then the empire of Rome.

For most of its history, Macedonia was divided between its upper and lower regions. Lower Macedonia, primarily located around the fertile plains of Thermaic Gulf, was ruled by kings identified as either the Temenidae or Argeadae by modern historians. Their capital was initially established at Aegae and then Pella from the fourth century on. Upper Macedonia consisted of the mountainous country to the north and west of Lower Macedonia. Comprised of small independent kingdoms, this region retained its political independence until united under the rule of Philip II. From then until its dissolution by Rome after the Third Macedonia War (171–168 BC), Macedonia became a major player in the political world of the Hellenistic period.

Although urbanization was systematically encouraged by the kings from Philip II onward, Macedonia primarily remained a rural land with the vast majority of its inhabitants employed as either small farmers or as pastoralists moving their herds of sheep and goats from mountain to valley and back. Although some merchants and craftsmen prospered in the cities, most Macedonians, unless in the military, rarely ventured from their local territory. Never a seafaring people, the Macedonians traded with the outside world through intermediaries, primarily the Greeks. Rich in natural resources, mines, hardwood forests, and fertile lands, the Macedonians exchanged these raw resources for the finished goods of other lands in the eastern Mediterranean basin.

The Epirot tribes of Epirus, ruled by a monarchy, never united into a large territorial state. They remained a rural people living off the land with no major cities within their realm. They remained affiliated with their three major local tribes of Molossians, Thesprotians, and Chaonians. Often dominated by their neighbors the Greeks, Macedonians, and Illyrians, they rarely were major players in the political and economic world of the Mediterranean.

Thracians, Illyrians (modern Albania), and the other southern Balkan people remained rural tribal societies ruled by local dynasts. The vast majority of the inhabitants lived off the land as small farmers or pastoralists. A few prospered from brigandage and piracy. Acknowledged as fierce warriors by the Greeks, few settle down into cities to become merchants, shopkeepers, craftsmen, etc. No major cities developed in these regions until the Hellenistic Age. Although their lands were rich in natural resources (fertile lands, mines, and timber), their lands were economically developed by outsiders—Greeks, Macedonians, and later Italians. Before their incorporation into the broader Mediterranean world by Rome from the second century BC onward, these people were always on the outside looking in at the prosperous Greek world from the fifth century onward.

Italia (Italy)

A land of many ethnic groups (Etrurians, Latins, Oscans, Campanians, Samnites, Bruttians, Greeks, etc.), this peninsula south of the Po River remained politically divided until firmly united under a powerful confederation by the Romans in the middle of the third century BC. The area north of the Po River to the Alps was known in antiquity as Cisalpine Gaul. The numerous Gallic tribes that infiltrated this region by the beginning of the third century would not be fully pacified until second century BC when the Roman policies of military suppression, colonization, and incorporation forced the Gauls to accept Roman rule.

Bisecting the Italian peninsula, the Apennine mountain range stretched the length of the peninsula. Except for a few valley passes through the mountains, the inhabitants of the east and west coast were isolated. As a result of this physical separation, the various ethnic groups maintained their identity, culture, and language until their full political incorporation into the Roman body politic during the first century BC.

figure 3. Apennine Mountains in central Italy

Italy possesses many good rivers that contributed to many settlements inland. The most prominent is the Po River that separates northern Italy from the peninsula. It flows eastward from the Alps into the Adriatic Sea. The Arno River in Etruria (modern Tuscany) flows westward and empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The most famous river is the Tiber that begins in the Apennine Mountains and flows westward through Rome to the sea. All rivers flowing either east or west connect the interior to the sea. Consequently, these river routes facilitated the economic development of agriculture, industry, trade, and urbanization. As a result, it was not difficult for the inhabitants of the peninsula to be engaged with the broader Mediterranean community.

The Italian coastline possesses many excellent harbors but most existed on the southern and western coasts. The Bay of Naples and the coast of Tuscany provided many good harbors that encouraged the Greeks and Etruscans to settle these regions. In the south, the Gulf of Taranto possessed excellent harbors at Tarentum (modern Taranto), Croton, and Sybaris. As a result, the inhabitants were forced to look either east to Greece, south to Sicily and Africa, or west to France, Spain, and the western islands for trade. Along the Adriatic coast, much of the Apennine chain touches the sea. Aside from Ancona and Ariminum, there were few good harbors to stimulate mercantile development. In addition, only the hostile and backward regions of Illyria and Dalmatia greeted adventurous merchants arriving from Italy.

Like their Hellenic counterparts, the inhabitants of Italy were divided among numerous city-states or tribal federations. Like the Greeks, the inhabitants rarely acted in unison. For example, although the Etruscan city-states were members of an Etruscan League, they fought each other as often as they fought their ethnic neighbors. The inhabitants of Latium, Samnium, Umbria, and other regions were only united by the Romans after centuries of warfare. By the late fourth century, the Samnites of central Italy united in opposition to the expansion of Rome. It would take a series of conflicts over two generations before they succumbed to the Romans in the early third century. The Greek city-states finally submitted to Roman hegemony in the 270s after the Roman defeat of the Epirot king Pyrrhus. Eventually all the inhabitants south of the Po River were brought under Roman control by 264 BC.

Rome, the Eternal City, became the greatest city in antiquity. Rome’s spiritual (Christianity), cultural, and historical significance remains a magnet for tourists in the modern world. In the heyday of its glory and power, Rome was the center of the Mediterranean universe. It was the hub from which and to which all things flowed. Political, military, and economic power; culture; goods and services; revenue and expenditures; men, women, and children; free and slave; rich and poor; philosophers and prophets; sinners and saints; and exotic flora and fauna were but a few cosmic items attracted by the Roman sun. The combination of Roman will and the assets of the Italian peninsula made the grandeur of Rome possible.

Libya (Tunisia)

Located on the north shore of Africa, modern Tunisia is situated between the countries of Libya and Algeria. In antiquity, the land was called Libya and the natives Libyans. Along with the Phoenician settlers, the inhabitants were called Libyphoenicians, or Punic by the Romans.¹⁵ The land is composed of deserts, mountains, and lush river valleys. The climate of the northern part of Tunisia is typical Mediterranean. The weather is hot and dry during the summer months. Although cool in the winter, the temperatures are rarely below freezing. Rainfall is adequate from fall to spring. The southern part is part of the great Sahara desert that stretches across North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Near East. This arid land was dominated by nomadic tribes moving their herds of sheep and goats.

Tunisia was originally colonized by Phoenicians, primarily from the city-states of Sidon and Tyre in the late ninth century BC. Other smaller settlements, such as Thapsus and Utica, their founding dates uncertain, also developed into prosperous commercial and agricultural towns. The trading settlement of Carthage (Phoenician Qart hadascht), founded about 814 BC from Tyre, was located on a small peninsula, along the Gulf of Tunis, and surrounded by a great harbor conducive for commercial development. Hills along the peninsula’s neck protected the settlement on its landward side. By the fifth century, Carthage grew into a powerful commercial and military republic that dominated trade in the western Mediterranean. Their commercial empire involved trade with the inhabitants of Italy, Hellas, Sicily, Iberia, Sardinia, and the Near East.

By the fifth century, the Carthaginians had conquered the Cape Bon peninsula and the Tunisian hinterland and its native tribes.¹⁶ They consolidated their gains through new settlements and small military garrisons. The Libyphoenicians were also loosely subordinate to Carthage. The large agricultural estates developed in the fertile Bagradas (modern Medjerda) valley west of Carthage became the breadbasket for Carthaginians and surrounding communities. With its citadel located on the hill known as the Bursa that contained the chief temples, the city of Carthage encompassed roughly three hundred hectares (740 acres) with perhaps a population of two hundred thousand inhabitants, citizens, foreigners, and slaves, by the third century.¹⁷ Except Alexandria in Egypt, the city was the largest and best fortified in Africa that separated it from the surrounding hinterland. Possessed of a great harbor, Carthage developed Tunisia into the center of western commerce.

To the east of Carthage lay Cyrene (modern Libya) and Egypt. To the west was the vast hinterland called Numidia (modern Algeria and Morocco), which stretched from the Mediterranean coast to the Sahara Desert, divided among numerous nomadic tribes. Numidia was divided between two large tribal groups known as the Massylii in the east and the Masaesylii in the west. The kingdom of the Massylii eventually established Cirta as its capital by the late third century. By the Second Punic War (218–201), this eastern kingdom was allied to Carthage while the western kingdom would ally with Rome. In a role reversal late in the war, the eastern kingdom allied with Rome and its powerful ruler Masinissa saw his dominion expanded by Rome after the war.

Iberia/Hispania (Spain)

Known in the ancient world as Iberia or Hispania (under the Roman Empire), the Iberian Peninsula is divided between the modern states of Spain and Portugal.¹⁸ It is separated from Gaul (France) by the Pyrenees Mountains and the North African coast (modern Morocco) by the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar). It is composed of lush fertile river valleys for agriculture, high mountains for pastoralism, arid and barren plains, good forests, excellent harbors at Gades (modern Cadiz) and New Carthage (modern Cartagena), and natural resources in the form of mines with rich veins of gold, silver, iron, and copper.¹⁹ These resources allowed the native tribes to grow, prosper, and develop their own unique culture. Populous, prosperous, and tough independent warriors, the native tribes were tough nuts to crack by the Carthaginians and Romans, who struggled to incorporate them into their empires after the mid-third century BC.

The bountiful natural resources made the Iberian Peninsula a prized possession by many mercantile states in the first millennium BC. Beginning with the Phoenicians from their main cities of Sidon and Tyre in the Levant (modern Lebanon), multiple trading settlements and colonies were founded by numerous mercantile states to reap the resources of the peninsula.²⁰ These states over the centuries included the Etruscans, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Massiliots in southern France. It was the eastern and southern coasts that drew the attention of traders and eventually settlers.

Like most other people in antiquity, the Iberians identified themselves with their local tribe or region. Like the Greeks and Etruscans, the Iberians rarely united to oppose stronger foes. Divided among numerous tribes, the northern Celtiberians and western Lusitanians were the strongest tribes that resisted the power of Carthage and Rome. Although Carthaginians conquests were short-lived in the third century, the Roman conquest would take more than a century after 200 BC to pacify the peninsula. But once integrated into Roman culture by the first century AD, Spain was the birthplace of the second century AD Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian.

Islands

The Mediterranean Sea is littered with thousands of islands large and small. Some were very populous while others were uninhabited. Some played a large role in the political, military, economic, and cultural history of the Mediterranean while others remained locked in obscurity. Some were inhabited by a monolithic people, the Greeks, while others were inhabited by a multitude of ethnically diverse people. Cyprus was settled by Greeks and Phoenicians. Sicily was inhabited by Sicans, Sicels, Elymians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and eventually Romans. Some islands were identified by their clusters such as the Cyclades in the Aegean, the Lipari between Italy and Sicily, the Balearics off the east coast of Spain, and the Dalmatian along the east coast of the Adriatic. The islands of Sicily and Sardinia were agricultural breadbaskets, while others were barren such as the religious center of Delos. Some islands, such as Crete, Sicily, Rhodes, and Cyprus, had multiple large urban centers, while others were identified with one city, such as Corcyra, Chios, Tyre, etc.

During the dominance of the Greco-Roman period, the large islands of Sicily, Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus, Sardinia, and a few smaller ones played prominent roles owning to their strategic, economic, and political importance for the great powers struggling for domination in the Mediterranean basin. These powers were the Persian Empire, Athens, Carthage, and Macedon during the classical period. Macedon, Egypt, Syria, Carthage, and Rome competed during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. For centuries, Sicily became a battleground for Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans because of its wealth, agricultural productivity, commercial value, and strategic location that divided the eastern from the western Mediterranean. All the major sea-lanes for trade between Spain and the Middle East passed by Sicily. The aim of the Carthaginians to dominate western trade brought them into conflict with the Greek poleis (city-states) of Sicily and Italy who wished to share the commercial pie of western trade. Outlasting the heyday of the Hellenic poleis, Carthage unintentionally came into conflict with the rising power of Rome over Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.

In the east, the Hellenes came into conflict with the Persian Empire, which attempted to conquer Hellas at the beginning of the fifth century. Bookended between Darius I’s invasion of the Balkan regions of Thrace and Scythia (modern Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria) in the late sixth century and his son Xerxes’s invasion of the Hellenic mainland in 480, this conflict, whether a hot or cold war, set the pattern for Greco-Persian relations for two centuries. Only with the rise of Macedon under Philip II, who destroyed the independence of the Greek poleis, and the conquest of the Persian Empire by his son Alexander the Great did this struggle for mastery of the eastern Mediterranean end.²¹

Unfortunately, the Greco-Persian struggle was replaced by the struggle for dominance by the Hellenistic kingdoms of Antigonid Macedon, Seleucid Near East, and Ptolemaic Egypt after the demise of Alexander’s empire in 323 BC. During these conflicts, multiple naval engagements and sieges occurred among the islands of the Aegean as the ambitious kings exerted their power to dominate the region. Eventually weakened by their numerous wars, these kingdoms succumbed to the power of Rome by 168 after Rome’s victory over Macedon in the Third Macedonian War (171–168).

In all these struggles, the islanders were caught in the crosshairs. Victims of war, subject to plunder, recruited as soldiers and sailors, enslaved if they resisted, forced to pay taxes, indemnities, and other financial exactions, the inhabitants were pawns in the game of thrones. Some islands certainly prospered. Others suffered permanent decline. Although some citizens would profit as merchants, slave traders, mercenaries, etc., many would become subject to impoverishment when their lands and businesses were either ravaged, confiscated, or abandoned. Despite many depredations, Sicily would remain a fertile and wealthy island quick to recover when wars ended. In contrast, the wealthy and powerful island of Rhodes in the third century was impoverished and reduced to impotence in the second half of the second century. The economic, political, and military consequences were not a zero-sum game. Unfortunately, due to a lack of data, it is impossible to quantify gains and losses. The best that can be gleaned is that the islanders struggled to survive in a turbulent world.

Desert

In contrast to the turquoise blue of the Mediterranean Sea, the arid yellow sand of the Sahara Desert stretched across North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to Mesopotamia. This vast wasteland was home to multiple nomadic tribes who drove their herds of goats, sheep, and some cattle from oasis to oasis or from mountain to valley in the occasional lush river valleys.

Aside from the fertile lands around Carthage, the Nile Valley, Syria, and Mesopotamia due to irrigation, this barren region, except for an occasional oasis, was uninhabitable for large stretches. Possessing hot and cold temperatures, aridity, occasional unmarked areas of quicksand, little flora and fauna, moving sand dunes, etc., this ever-changing landscape provided few resources for survival. Careful logistical preparations were made by the nomads, commercial caravans, and military expeditions that crossed the desert. Roads were few and rapidly deteriorated or erased by the sand if not maintained. Landmarks often changed or disappeared. Only the hardiest creatures could survive.

However, the nomads, who occupied the desert for generations, adapted marvelously to their environment. Whether these citizens of the desert traveled by foot, horse, or dromedary, they traveled lightly with all their possessions extremely portable.²² In search of food and water for themselves and their livestock, they moved often before the resources of any region were exhausted. To replenish their worn-out goods, such as utensils, cloth, weapons, etc., they traded with the inhabitants of the few cities and towns that developed along trade routes, numerous oases, river valleys, and the coast.

Requiring only the necessities of life to survive a hostile environment, the nomads were rarely wealthy in the form of money, bullion, or luxury goods. They often bartered for goods and services rather than utilize a monetary exchange. They lacked permanent housing, artistic furniture, luxurious dinnerware, expensive jewelry, sophisticated armaments, etc. Living on the outskirts of society, these nomads often played integral parts in the affairs of the settled societies from central Asia and Mesopotamia to the Atlantic Ocean. Rarely noted by ancient historians except in passing, these nomads often played a role in the political, military, and economic affairs of the Mediterranean basin.

Despite their poor existence, the men of the desert often were hardy warriors. They played vital roles in the battles between Alexander and Persia, Seleucids and Ptolemies, and Carthage and Rome. Sogdians, Arachosians, and other central Asiatic people fought for Persia. Arab tribesmen fought in the Syrian wars between Seleucids and Ptolemies. Carthage and Rome employed Numidian cavalrymen in Spain, Italy, and North Africa in the Punic wars. Whether allies or mercenaries, their skill with horses and camels made them valuable additions to the armies of the more powerful states.

Fringe Areas

Although indirectly bordering the Mediterranean Sea, the Gauls outside the Rhone River valley, the Germanic tribes north of the Alps, the people of the British Isles, the nomads of the Sahara Desert, the African tribes of the Sudan and Ethiopia, the Thracian and Illyrian tribes of the northern Balkans, the Scythian people north of the Danube River and Black Sea, and the natives of the numerous states of central Asia and India had direct connections with the Mediterranean people. These connections include commercial relations, manpower contributions to the political and military struggles of powerful neighbors, cultural and diplomatic exchanges, and migrations of people whether voluntary or involuntary.

Trade was the primary link that connected all these fringe people with the Mediterranean world. Whether agricultural products, minerals, luxury items, or exotic woods, spices, animals, etc., these items were transported to the Mediterranean inhabitants in exchange for gold, silver, specialized goods, artistic artifacts, wine, etc. Tin came from the British Isles by way of France and Spain. Spices and perfumes arrived from Arabia and India. Exotic woods and animals were transported from tropical Africa. Thracian and Illyrian mines contributed iron, copper, gold, and silver. Grain shipped from the Crimea and southern Russia fed the Greek cities. Elephants arrived from India and North Africa to be used by Seleucid and Carthaginian armies respectively. Familiar with the geography, caravan routes, and sea-lanes of these far-off lands, it was usually native merchants and their employees that transported goods to the Mediterranean. As a result, commerce from these fringe areas played an integral part in the Mediterranean economy.

Since the Bronze Age, migrations of people from parts known and unknown entered and disrupted the settled regions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, southern Europe, and the Mediterranean islands. Migrations were a major contribution to the collapse of the Bronze Age in the early twelfth century.²³ In the first millennium BC, periodic migrations occurred of people from Central Asia into the Middle East; Gauls from northern Europe into Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor; nomads of the North Africa desert into the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tunisia, and coastal regions; and finally Scythian tribes from the Russian steppes into the Balkans. A few crossed the Mediterranean by boat. These periodic migrations certainly disrupted the settled states. War, economic destruction, political disintegration, and demographic dislocation were a few of the consequences of these migrations. It often took generations for the impact of these migrations to stabilize.

The Gallic migrations from northern Europe in the fifth through third centuries BC resulted in the disruption of life in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Italy, north of the Po River, was transformed into a Gallic homeland. Rome was sacked around 390 BC.²⁴ A Gallic invasion in 280–279 caused major destruction in Greece. Crossing into Asia Minor, the Gauls established the region of Galatia that raided their neighbors throughout the Hellenistic period. The eastward migration of Greeks and Macedonians after Alexander’s conquests changed the political, social, and cultural landscape of Egypt, Syria, and the Middle East. In conclusion, migrations have always played an integral part in the history of the Mediterranean Sea.

These fringe areas also provided mercenary troops for Alexander the Great, Carthage, and the Hellenistic kingdoms. Thracians were used in the armies of Philip II and Alexander the Great. For centuries, the Persians had employed warrior tribes from central Asia as cavalry and horse archers. The Seleucids hired Indian mahouts to control their elephants. Carthaginian armies employed Gauls, Iberians, Numidians, and various North African nomads. Gallic and Germanic warriors were used in Roman armies by the first century BC.

Although generally called barbarians by the inhabitants of settled regions and ancient writers, these people were not necessarily uncivilized brutes. Barbarian for many ancient people merely implied foreigners with different languages, customs, gods, and culture. Barbarian did not always have the pejorative connotation implied in modern language.

Summary

The Mediterranean Sea and adjacent lands display characteristics that are often similar and yet can be diverse. Mountain ranges, major rivers, forests, and fertile valleys are common characteristics of most regions. While deserts exist in North Africa and the Middle East, they are nonexistent in Europe. The five peninsulas developed rich and diversified cultures with a wide variety of ethnic groups. All were likely interconnected initially by commerce. By way of land and sea, the caravan routes and sea-lanes provided the connecting links for all inhabitants from India to the Atlantic Ocean.

While the inhabitants had limited knowledge of the geography of their world, they realized that the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe were connected. Ancient scholars and explorers believed that the three continents were essentially a large island surrounded by a huge ocean. Slowly but surely, their conception of the world changed as explorers from the first millennium BC onward expanded their horizon by new knowledge of the vast size of Africa, India, and improved awareness of central Asia and northern Europe.

Islands, large and small, puncture the water of the Mediterranean Sea. Their size and resources determined the amount of settlement. Crete, Sicily, Rhodes, and Cyprus developed prosperous and varied cultures because of the richness of resources and their location to advanced land states. During the first millennium BC, these islands were integrated into the broader civilization of the Mediterranean Sea.

The desert of North Africa stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Near East. Its size and inhospitable climate acted as a barrier that restricted penetration into sub-Saharan Africa or Arabia. Although sparsely occupied by nomads who traveled large distances to a fertile valley, oasis, or coast, the desert was a major deterrent to human occupation, development, and knowledge of the bigger world.

Finally, the periphery of the Mediterranean world did not exist in a vacuum. Northern Europe, central Asia, India, and the east coast of sub-Saharan Africa had trade, political, and cultural ties to the Mediterranean basin. Although access to and from these regions was limited, during the last half of the first millennium, these regions were increasingly absorbed into the Mediterranean constellation of complex political, military, and socioeconomic relations.

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³ Some basic information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea and https://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm. Different sources provide different measurements regarding the information listed here. View all figures as approximations.

⁴ The Levant often refers to the lands that border the eastern Mediterranean Sea. These include the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, southeast Turkey and the adjacent islands such as Cyprus and Rhodes.

⁵ Casson discusses some of the attempts to explore the Atlantic Ocean (Casson 1991, 1116–126).

⁶ (Strabo.2.5.9; 11.11.7). The ancient measurement of a stadia varied in length. It ranged from 177.7 to 197.3 meters (284 to 646 feet). This about an eighth of a Roman mile. The length of a Roman mile is about 1,480 meters (1,618 yards). An English mile is 1,760 yards (1,609 meters or 5,280 feet.) (Strabo 2014, 32–33).

⁷ (Strabo 2014, 40).

⁸ Although China became known under the Roman emperors, knowledge about it was extremely limited.

⁹ The stimulus for the discussion of the environmental characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea is derived from the French historian Fernand Braudel. For a detailed discussion of these characteristics, see (Braudel 1976, Vol. 1, 25–275).

¹⁰ Carthage was a Phoenician colony founded in the late ninth or early eighth century BC on the North African coast of modern-day Tunisia. Eventually dominating commerce in the western Mediterranean basin, the Carthaginians were military and commercial rivals of the Greeks and then Romans for centuries until Carthage was destroyed by Rome in 146 BC.

¹¹ The control of its fleet became a major cause in the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta (Thuc.1.44).

¹² Like the Greeks, the Etruscans inhabited numerous city-states north of Rome. Their home territory of Etruria is called Tuscany today. Although culturally united, like the Greeks, they were politically divided. They often warred among themselves. At the height of their power, they controlled northern Italy from the Po River to the city of Capua south of Rome. Their power declined with the rise of Rome during the fourth century BC.

¹³ (Braudel 1976, Vol. 1, 162).

¹⁴ Garnsey argues that Athens began to import grain on a regular basis by the Peloponnesian War (431–404). Athens was clearly vulnerable to food shortages in the fourth century (Garnsey 1988, 131–137).

¹⁵ Libyphoenicians was a term used by the ancient Greeks to describe the Phoenician towns and Libyan natives in the hinterland that were subject to Carthaginian control. Some had the same laws as Carthage according to Polybius (7.9.5).

¹⁶ (Miles 2010, 78).

¹⁷ (Hoyos 2015, 14–15).

¹⁸ The ancient Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus used the term Iberia about 500 BC. The Greeks learned about Iberia from the Phoenicians.

¹⁹ Polybius claims that forty thousand men were employed in the silver mines near New Carthage in the second century. Daily production was twenty-five thousand drachmas of silver. Strabo discusses the mining processes in the first century BC (Polyb.3.9.8-11; Strabo.3.2.8-11).

²⁰ The Phoenicians may have founded Gades about 1100 BC (Herm 1975, 135).

²¹ Historians date the end of the Persian Empire in 330 with the assassination of Darius III while he attempted to elude the pursuit of Alexander after the Macedonian victory at the battle of Gaugamela in 331.

²² The dromedary is a one-hump camel, also known as an Arabian camel, that has adapted to the hot arid desert. The Bactrian camel has two humps and is adapted to the cold of the northern deserts that stretch from Iran to China.

²³ Cline discusses the role migrations played in the collapse of the Bronze Age. Migrations were an important but not necessarily the primary reason for the collapse (Cline 2014, 154–160).

²⁴ (Polyb.2.17-18.3; Livy.5.36-44; Plut.Cam.15-22).

Chapter Two

The Environment

Climate

What is the general climate of the Mediterranean basin that stretches from Spain to the Levant?²⁵ Despite individual variations from the continental landmasses to the islands, there is a general unity to the weather pattern that impacts all the lands and people in a common way. By a common way, we infer how they lived. These elements include what, when, and how deities were worshipped; what and when crops were planted and harvested; the seasonal transhumance of animals; how and when they traveled by land or sea; how cultures evolved, etc. The seasonal weather patterns influence how all humans lead their lives.

While weather patterns certainly vary among countries, the common characteristics of the Mediterranean climate are long hot, arid summers combined with cool, wet winters. This pattern has existed in the Mediterranean since about 3000 BC. These common characteristics do not preclude extreme variations in temperature and rainfall. Studies have suggested that warm and dry periods, which lasted centuries, alternated with cold and humid periods.²⁶ From May to September, the temperatures range between seventy and one hundred plus degrees Fahrenheit (above twenty degrees Celsius). Cool and wet in winter with snow in the higher elevations, temperatures usually remain above the freezing point of thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit (zero degree Celsius). Although snow occasionally occurs in the lowlands and coastal regions, this is a rarity.

Rainfall varies dramatically from the western basin to the eastern basin. It also can vary within countries. Spain ranges from wet and humid conditions to hot and arid. Weather patterns off the Atlantic Ocean and the Sahara Desert impact rainfall throughout the region. Coastal regions receive more rain than the interior and mountain regions. As a general rule, the western basin receives more rain than the eastern basin. Rome receives about twenty-six (660 millimeters) inches of rain annually while Athens receives sixteen inches (400 millimeters).²⁷ Most rain falls from October through April. In antiquity, many crops were planted in the fall and harvested in the spring. Hot and dry in the summer, many areas are subject to forest fires and river beds running dry.

Throughout the year, strong storms plague the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. An occasional tropical cyclone known as a Medicane occurs. Many an ancient vessel and crew met their fate in Poseidon’s garden. Strong northwest winds and rough seas during the winter months prevented most maritime travel. Whether merchant ship or war vessel, the technology, ship design, and mariner skill often made winter sailing an extremely hazardous enterprise. Few captains and crew tempted fate. Strong storms could blow ancient ships hundreds of miles off course. Homer’s Odyssey describes the years-long wanderings of Odysseus returning home from Troy. In an early episode while sailing home to Ithaca, Odysseus describes a storm that battered his ships:

But against our ships Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, roused the North Wind with a wondrous tempest, and hid with clouds the land and the sea alike, and night rushed down from heaven. Then the ships were driven headlong, and their sails were torn to shreds by the violence of the wind. So we lowered the sails and stowed them aboard, in fear of death, and rowed the ships hurriedly toward the land. (Homer.Odys.9.67-74)²⁸

Coast

Although the coastline of the Mediterranean has undergone significant geological changes since antiquity, the basic characteristics remain the same. These include a narrow coastline, mountains, and numerous fertile river deltas (i.e. Rhine, Ebro, Po, and Nile). Much of the coastal region is bordered by mountains that often reach the sea. Only the large coastline of northern Africa that stretched from Morocco to Palestine is bordered by desert.²⁹

The longest coastlines belong to the modern countries of Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The coastline of modern Greece, which includes all the islands, is about 8,500 miles (13,700 kilometers).³⁰ Although this is similar to the ancient Hellenic mainland, it does not reflect the greater Hellenic world which stretched from the Black Sea and Asia Minor to the area known as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece) in Italy. The modern Italian coastline stretches some 4,700 miles (7,600 kilometers).³¹ This number is in the ballpark to ancient Italy after Roman unification of Cisalpine Gaul (Italy north of the Po River) to the peninsula by the end of the second century BC. The length of the coastline measures 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) for Turkey.³²

The extensive length of these coastlines exposed many native people to the sea. This exposure encouraged these adventurous people to become prominent seafarers to explore, colonize, and peddle the fruits of commerce. Eventually the Greeks, Etruscans, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Italians rivaled each other as the supreme merchants of the Mediterranean. In contrast, despite the extensive coastline of ancient Anatolia / Asia Minor, most natives remained landlubbers.³³ Their eyes were focused eastward toward the dominant land empires (Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian) that developed in Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau.

What were the benefits derived from the sea? First, the sea provided good harbors, deltas, and islands that proved friendly for settlement during the peak colonization period of the Phoenicians and Greeks from the ninth to the sixth centuries BC. Second, the sea provided the connecting link for communication, trade, and cultural exchange between states, cities, and colonies. Third, the sea was a major food source. Many varieties of marine life (fish, mammals, and crustaceans) were harvested for local consumption as well as trade. Fourth, excluding the winter season, the sea-lanes and favorable trade winds provided a more efficient and cost-effective means of transportation for trade, a faster means of communication, and an additional means to project military power.

The violence of winter storms usually discouraged commercial exchange and military adventures. The costs and dangers were usually too great for merchants and captains to risk their goods, ships, and crews. Prior to the development of large battleships in the Hellenistic period, ancient warships were relatively small and designed for battle in calm seas.³⁴ The historical record and modern archaeology provide numerous examples of merchant vessels and warships that found a permanent home at the bottom of the sea.

Although the Egyptians were major players in Mediterranean trade for millennia, they were not major seafarers. Most goods were transported on the Nile River. Their exposure to the sea was confined to the Nile delta and coastal shipping to the Levant and down the Red Sea. From the Old Kingdom (2575–2150 BC) to the sixth century, the Egyptians primary outlet to the sea was Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt. Located on the west bank of the Nile River, fifteen miles (24 kilometers) south of modern Cairo, Memphis was approximately 845 miles (1,360 kilometers) from the coast. In the mid-sixth century, the pharaoh Amasis II (570–526 BC) designated the port city of Naucratis, located about forty-five miles (74 kilometers) from the sea on the westernmost Canopic branch of the Nile River, a port of trade (emporion) for all Greek merchants. From this time until the rise of Alexandria in the Hellenistic period, Naucratis was the center of trade between Egypt and the Greek world. The development of Alexandria under Ptolemaic rule made it the largest commercial center in the Mediterranean rivaled only by Carthage and then Rome.

The Phoenicians of the Levant (modern Lebanon) were confined to their small city-states with Sidon and Tyre the most prominent. For centuries, the Phoenicians remained great merchants and mariners transporting goods between the Middle East and Spain. Occasionally they ventured into the Atlantic Ocean to acquire tin and other goods from the island the Romans later called Britannia (Great Britain). Tin was a key ingredient in the production of bronze. The Phoenicians were famous for their development, production, and trade of purple dye and cloth that became symbols of royalty and wealth throughout the ancient world. This dye was derived from sea snails found in their local water.³⁵

Mountains

Another major characteristic of the Mediterranean basin are the numerous mountain ranges that ring the sea. The most prominent ranges include the Pyrenees in Spain; the Alps in France; the Apennines in Italy; the Atlas in Morocco; the Pindus range in Greece and Macedonia; the Taurus, Pontic, Zagros, and others in Turkey; and the anti-Lebanon mountains of Syria and Lebanon. Although high, massive, and covered in snow much of the year, these mountains were not impenetrable to human occupation. There were passes that provided access through the mountains. Although steep, narrow, and sometimes treacherous, roads or pathways were developed that initially allowed for transhumance between the summer and winter pastures. Eventually, commercial and military routes were developed through the mountains that linked the interior to the coastal regions and the greater Mediterranean world.

These geographical links allowed the inhabitants of the mountains, plains, and coastal regions to interact, amalgamate, and evolve into larger political and socio/economic units. These units eventually became tribes, towns, city-states, kingdoms, and ultimately empires. As a result, the inhabitants and the resources of the mountains (food, minerals, timber, etc.) were incorporated and utilized to the benefit of their lowland neighbors. Unfortunately, for lack of evidence, this transformation process of people and resources cannot be traced in detail. We are forced to infer the process from a small sample size of data. Often this process is more inductive guesswork than a rational scientific methodology.

The harsh existence of mountain life (isolation, weather, poverty, etc.) was a strong motivating factor that encouraged the inhabitants of the foothills and mountains to interact with their lowland neighbors. From Spain to the Levant, many pastoralists often lived in the lowlands in winter where there their flocks of sheep and goats found adequate amounts of food and water. The hardy inhabitants, who resided year-round in their mountainous habitat, traded with their lowland neighbors to acquire the necessities of life that made living in their environment easier to bear. Eventually, the expansion of urbanization, combined with the economic prosperity and cultural benefits offered, seduced many inhabitants to settle in the cities or the fertile plains that surrounded these cities. Although many inhabitants never abandoned their mountain residence, the limited resources prevented the population from keeping pace with the demographic growth of the lowlands.

In the Alps of France (Gaul) and Italy, most Gallic tribes retained their mountain homes. In the fourth century, a few tribes eventually migrated into the Po valley of northern Italy, which became known as Cisalpine Gaul to the Romans. In the third century, other Gauls migrated to Asia Minor and formed the kingdom of Galatia. However, most tribes were content to maintain their ancestral homes and conduct raids for plunder against their lowland neighbors.

In the Balkans, the Illyrian, Thracian, Paeonian, and other ethnic tribes enjoyed the security of their mountain fortresses. They also raided the lowlands of their Hellenic, Macedonian, and Epirot neighbors for plunder. Not until the reign of Philip II of Macedon (359–336) were these tribes partially pacified and subordinated to the Macedonian kingdom and eventually Rome. The same applies to the inhabitants of Asia Minor and the Persian plateau who vigorously resisted conquest by Persia, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, and then Rome. From the fourth to the first centuries BC, the Lusitanian, Celtiberian, and other tribes of Iberia (Spain) refused to submit to the might of Carthage and Rome. Often defeated in battle on the plains, these stout and fiercely