More than any other type of environment, with the possible exception of mountains, the sea has been understood since antiquity as being immovable to a proverbial degree. Yet it was the sea's capacity for movement – both literally and figuratively through such emotions as fear, hope and pity – that formed one of the primary means of conceptualizing its significance in Late Antique societies.

This volume advances a new and interdisciplinary understanding of what the sea as an environment and the pursuit of seafaring meant in antiquity, drawing on a range of literary, legal and archaeological evidence to explore the social, economic and cultural factors at play. The contributions are structured into three thematic parts which move from broad conceptual categories to specific questions of networks and mobility. Part One takes a wide view of the Mediterranean as an environment with great metaphorical and symbolic potential. Part Two looks at networks of seaborne communication and the role of islands as the characteristic hubs of the Mediterranean. Finally, Part Three engages with the practicalities of tackling the sea as a challenging environment that needs to be challenged politically, legally and for the means of travel.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Note on Translations
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations

Introduction: Approaches to the Later Imperial Mediterranean as an Environment
Emilia Mataix Ferrándiz (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland) and Antti Lampinen (Finnish Institute at Athens, Greece)

Part I: Imagination and Domination: The Mediterranean as a Conceptual Environment
1. Knights, Kings, and Dragons: The Symbolic Conquest of the Mediterranean Sea in Late Antiquity and its Historical Background
Joanna Töyräänvuori (University of Helsinki, Finland)
2. Migrating Mosaics: Transforming Images of Oceanus and Marine Environments from the Imperial Period to Late Antiquity
Alexandra Grigorieva (University of Helsinki, Finland)
3. Mediterranean as a Contested Environment in Late Antiquity
Antti Lampinen (Finnish Institute at Athens, Greece)
Part II: A Networked Environment
4. Connecting People in the Mediterranean: Mobility and Migration in Ostia and Portus Arja Karivieri (Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Finland)
5. ... d?? ??s?? p??e?? ... Taking the Island Route: Trade and exchange along the coast of Southern Naxos Hallvard Indjerd (British School at Athens, Greece)
6. 'Stepping across thresholds”: Islands as Resilient Spaces of Connectivity in the Passage from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages (c. 500-ca. 700)
Luca Zavagno (Bilkent University, Turkey) and Zeynep Olgun (Koç University, Turkey)
Part III: Braving the Sea in the Later Empire
7. 'Washed by the Waves'. Fighting against Shipwrecking in the Later Roman Empire
Emilia Mataix Ferrándiz (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland)
8. Upwind Sailing Capabilities of Square-Rigged Ships in Late Antiquity and the Ramifications for Trade Networks
Doug Forsyth (University of St Andrews, UK)
9. On the Byzantine Tradition of D. 14.2.9 (Maec. ex lege Rhodia): A Note concerning the Emperor as Ruler on the Sea
Valerio Massimo Minale (Bocconi University, Spain)
Notes
Bibliography
Index