But as Ernle Bradford details, the Mediterranean, while geologically young, is home to a long and oft times bloody history. As he illustrates, 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 Civilisations, 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. But Bradford also shows the importance of the Mediterranean in the spread of culture – in science, in art, in language, in religion, in agriculture and in philosophy. After all, it is the same sea where Homer set The Odyssey and where Lord Byron and Keats were inspired to write a wealth of poetry. Where arguably the filtering of scientific thought and art from the Islamic Golden Age, gave way to the birth of the Renaissance. Where the spread of advancements in agricultural enabled those ancient empires and kingdoms of Greece, Rome, Sparta and Catharge to thrive in the first place. For Bradford, this is the Portrait of A Sea, where life and death have reigned as long as human civilization has… Mediterranean is a fascinating read of maritime and military history from ancient to modern times across the Mediterranean. Praise for Ernle Bradofrd… 'A gripping story' - The Economist ‘a superior, readable treatment of an important but little-discussed epic from the Renaissance past ... An astonishing tale’ - Kirkus Reviews About the author… Ernle Bradford (1922-1986) was an historian who wrote books on naval battles and historical figures. Among his subjects were Lord Nelson, the Mary Rose, Christopher Columbus, Julius Caesar and Hannibal. He also documented his own voyages on the Mediterranean Sea.

    

    Readers who have never been to Greece will want to go and those who have will want to return.

    Less has been said about the impact of Hellenism on the lands east and south of Greece--great civilizations in their own right who, nonetheless, fell under the spell of the Greeks and were influenced for better or worse by their traditions. This book examines Eastern Hellenism, Greek at its root, but modified by cultures as diverse as the Macedonians, Syrians, Jews, and Egyptians. Lasting for eighteen centuries (until the fall of Constantinople) and radically shaping the fate of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, this Hellenic legacy can be seen in Buddhist art, Zoroastrian scriptures, the preaching of Mani, Christian spirituality, and Jewish theology. As European Hellenism went into decline, its Eastern version became stronger, surviving nationalist disaffection and military pressure and producing wave after wave of artistic, political, and religious mutations.