The aim of this course is to show that the Mediterranean is not just a sea, but that it is more than just a sea, that this “inland sea” determined the fate of the Romans and the Old World.

As many historians of the Mediterranean recognize, this “inland sea” determined the fate of the Old World from the very beginning, while all the other seas were later additions to the stage of history. In short, the historical narratives write that everything began and ended here. In other words, hundreds of stories of birth and rise have accompanied this giant blue. After the surrender of Tarentum to Rome in 272 BC, Rome completed the organization of the Italian peninsula. This was the first time in the history of Italy that Rome had created a unity of political space. After the Rome-Italy confederation was established in Italy, there were wide coasts to the east and west of Italy and these coasts were open to all kinds of attacks. This situation confronted the Roman power in Italy with two parallel problems. One was the problem of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west and the other was the problem of the Adriatic Sea in the east. At this time, the west was dominated by Carthage, a great maritime state. In the east, Macedonia, the closest land state to Italy among the Hellenistic states, was dominant. Rome, struggling against these powers, called the Mediterranean “mare nostrum” (Our Sea) as a result of the Conquest of the Western Mediterranean World and the Carthaginian Wars, and as a result of the Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean World and the Macedonian Wars. It showed this with a new system it implemented, the provincia, that is, the provincial system.