Mediterranean - Portrait of a Sea

For many, the Mediterranean conjures tranquil images – whether it’s the warm weather and good food of Italy’s coastline, or the cosmopolitan city of Istanbul; gateway between West and East. But as Ernle Bradford details, the Mediterranean, while geologically young, is home to a long and bloody history, it is a sea that has witnessed many an empire rise and fall.

From its origins as arguably the cradle of both Western and Eastern Civilizations, where early Phoenicians used it traverse the known world for trade. Or the rise of the Ancient Greeks, whose early innovations allowed them to become the dominant empire, only to fall in the face of the Romans – the great tacticians. Only for the likes of the Byzantines, and later the Norseman and even the Venetians to make their own kingdoms, empires and republics. A sea later crossed by warring Crusaders and Moors.

Bradford shows in great detail how the sea and innovations made in naval, navigational knowledge and shipbuilding often made or conversely, broke an empire. Everyone from Napoleon to Suleiman the Great to even pirates saw the importance of such waters – and the decisive battles fought on them.