Module overview
The ancient Greeks were said to live like ‘frogs around a pond’ (Plato, Phaedo 109b) and the sea was omnipresent in their history and societies. This was true in particular for those who inhabited the islands scattered around the Aegean Sea, between mainland Greece and modern-day Turkey. In Islands and Empires, we explore the history of the Aegean from the Classical age until the Roman Imperial period. The course takes you on a journey through time and space, addressing questions of political power and control as well as social and cultural history.
The central theme of this module (part 1) is ‘thalassocracy’ or sea power. We start by covering the main features of the Aegean as a region and then explore its political history from the fifth century BCE until the second and third centuries CE. What did it mean to control the Aegean Sea or part of it? How did this control manifest itself? The success of Classical Athens can be explained to a large extent through the power of its navy and its control over the islands of the Aegean, who paid tribute to the city. Following Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BCE, the Aegean became a key region of conflict between Macedonian and Ptolemaic rulers, and this was the arena which the Romans entered when they established their empire in the eastern Mediterranean.
Overall, this module equips you to think about the ways in which the Aegean Sea formed part of power shifts in the ancient Mediterranean. You gain an understanding of the empires which were active in the Aegean as well as developing insights into manifestations of power in Aegean communities.