"The late Hellenistic period witnessed the rise of an imperial power whose dominion extended across almost the whole known world. The Roman empire radically affected geographical conceptions, evoking new ways of describing the earth and of constructing its history. In this book …
"No historian of ancient Rome in this century has had a greater influence on historical research or won greater international acclaim than Sir Ronald Syme. His outstanding position was due mainly to his first two books, The Roman Revolution, which appeared in 1939, and Tacitus (…
"Although the Greco-Roman world was centered on the Mediterranean ... from c700 BC into the Roman period a series of explorers were to discover the entire Atlantic coast, north to Ireland, Scandinavia and the Baltic, and south into the African tropics."--Jacket