Mediterranean Sea: Did you mean...?

Pepper has long been the king of spices and for almost 2,000 years dominated world trade. Originating in India, it was known in Greece by the 4th century BCE and was an integral part of the Roman diet by 30 BCE. It remained a force in Europe...

Driven by their desire for trade and the acquisition of such commodities as silver from Spain, gold from Africa, and tin from the Scilly Isles, the Phoenicians sailed far and wide, even beyond the Mediterranean's traditional safe limits of...

Around 1065, the geopolitical landscape of North Africa and the western Mediterranean was marked by fragmentation, migration, and the rise of new regional powers. Older political structures were weakening, while emergent dynasties and mobile...

Caesarea Maritima, the city Herod the Great (r. 37-4 BCE) built for Rome on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean served as the Roman Empire's powerbase of operations both commercially and militarily. With Rome's ultimate goal of adding...

Dead Sea Scrolls jars from Qumran (Khirbet Qumran or Wadi Qumran), West Bank of the Jordan River, near the north part of the Dead Sea, modern-day State of Israel. The Dead Sea Scrolls, or Qumran Caves Scrolls, are parchment and papyrus...

The Periplus Ponti Euxini (“Circumnavigation of the Black Sea”) by Arrian of Nicomedia (c. 86–after 146 CE) is a remarkable example of Roman geographical and administrative writing from the early 2nd century CE. The term Periplus, derived...

With 7600 perimeter miles (12,231 km), the Scythians roamed and ruled over an astonishing 1.5 million mi² (2.4 million km²) of territory between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE. Although building an empire was never in their interest, Scythian...

The map show the political situation within the western regions of the Mediterranean after the deposition of the last Western emperor, Romolus Augustulus, by Odoacer, the commander of the Italian imperial army. In reality, the Western Roman...

Geopolitical climate in the Eastern Mediterranean before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 CE.

Mediterranean Map from the novel The Jericho River.