Thirteen papers which originated in the seminar series The Transpennine Research Seminar, begun in 1996, and reflect a wide range of topics associated with the Mediterranean and Aegean from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. Subjects include: the sea and seafaring in Greek literature and hagiography; Mediterranean trade; the navies of the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans; the ancient ship and pirates.

"Bowersock's fascinating lectures add much to the new perception of the early empire as a time of experiment and cultural cross-fertilization."--Averil Cameron, author of "Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire

"An exhilarating exploration of the multicultural world of the Roman empire. . . . Did the Latin and Greek 'novels' (from the comic "Satyricon, contemporary with Nero and Paul, onwards through the whole range of romantic narratives) with their exotic locations and dramatic incident, draw on Christian belief in resurrection and the Eucharist? . . . Bowersock dissects the body of the evidence with a skeptical scalpel and magically restores it intact and alive."--Susan Treggiari, author of "Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian

"Conceived in admirably broad and imaginative terms and treated with erudition and boldness in equal parts. "Fiction as History, controversial as some of its conclusions may seem, opens up a whole new vein in scholarship in this field, and shows that the ancient novel is worth the attention of not only literary scholars but historians as well. A much-needed book."--B. P. Reardon, editor of "Collected Ancient Greek Novels