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108 Ecology and Beyond
later the Roman Empire transformed into the law of a single
state, finds a predecessor in the Late Bronze Age. As early as the
second millennium, connectivity had reached a high level of
sophistication, at least in the eastern part of the Mediterranean.
This is also an element in the longue durée which is a part of the
history of the Mediterranean.
3. mediterranean connectivity:
inside and outside
We can now draw a parallel with other zones that have a sea as a
basic defining quality. Recent research on other zones such as
the Atlantic and the north-western part of the Indian Ocean
tries to elaborate concepts like those which have long been
applied to the Mediterranean case. These studies provide a
helpful comparison with the Mediterranean paradigm.
As for the Atlantic, it is immediately apparent that a basic
difference lies in the enormous distances between its two
coasts, so important that it long prevented any communication
between them. It was a great technical achievement to master
the sea routes between one side and the other. More than that,
on the European-African side of the ocean as well as on the
American one, it was in the same period, and basically for the
same reasons, that general communication was established
along the coasts themselves. It seems for instance that on the
American side contacts between the different civilizations of
central or South America were limited. The Phoenician circumnavigation
of Africa launched by Necho II (c. 600 bc) was a
brilliant success. Starting from Carthage, Hanno’s voyage along
the coast of West Africa (c. 425 bc) may have reached the region
of Mount Cameroon. In the second century bc, Eudoxus of
Cyzicus also made explorations in the same area, although he
probably did not go as far as his Phoenician predecessors. Yet
these fascinating experiments had no lasting consequences.
Beyond the coast of present Morocco, no permanent relation
was established with local people. If trading posts were established,
which may have been the case with Hanno’s exploration,
they had no future that we know of.
Curiously enough, the reason why Eudoxus, who had first
been in the service of Ptolemy VII, envisaged a circumnavi-