Curated category
History of the Mediterranean
- Fatimid CaliphateThe Fatimid Caliphate ruled over a stretch of land so vast it reached from the western Mediterranean all the way to the Red Sea.
- Abbasid CaliphateThe Abbasid Caliphate began not with a coronation but with a revolt carried out under the sign of the Black Standard, launched from the distant eastern…
- HittitesThe Hittites built one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia, yet for centuries the only place anyone could read their name was the…
- Republic of GenoaThe Republic of Genoa earned four nicknames over its long life: la Superba, la Dominante, la Dominante dei mari, and la Repubblica dei magnifici.
- Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt grew up along the lower reaches of the Nile River, in the eastern corner of North Africa. Around 3150 BC, by the conventional chronology, two…
- Ancient CarthageAncient Carthage was once the richest city in the western Mediterranean, a Phoenician-descended power that controlled the coasts of North Africa, Iberia, and…
- PhoeniciaThe Phoenicians left behind thousands of inscriptions scattered from Cyprus to Morocco, yet for centuries they were called a lost civilization.
- Classical antiquityClassical antiquity is the name historians give to roughly thirteen centuries of human civilization, stretching from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD.
- Early Muslim conquestsThe early Muslim conquests began in 622 when Muhammad established the first Islamic state at Medina, a small city in the Arabian Peninsula.
- Maritime republicsIn the year 849, a coalition of Italian coastal cities sailed out to the port of Ostia and shattered a Saracen invasion fleet.
- Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War IIThe Mediterranean and Middle East theatre lasted longer than any other in the Second World War. Combat opened on the 10th of June 1940, when Italy declared…
- Greco-Roman worldThe Greco-Roman world was not a single empire or a single people, but a vast zone of shared language, law, myth, and architecture that stretched from the…
- Republic of VeniceThe Republic of Venice endured for over 1,100 years, longer than any other major European state of its era. At its peak, between the 13th and 16th centuries…
- Cilician piratesCilician pirates once held the entire Mediterranean Sea hostage. At their peak, according to Plutarch, they commanded more than 1,000 ships and had captured…
- Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was one of the most expansive and enduring political structures the ancient world produced, stretching from Hadrian's Wall in drizzle-soaked…
- Mare NostrumMare Nostrum is two words in Latin that carry the weight of an entire civilization's ambition. They mean, simply, "Our Sea." Rome remains the only state in…