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The Mediterranean and Ancient History 21
claim that the Mediterranean region possessed or possesses
unity is linked, though not in a neat logical fashion, to the notion
that it is distinctive. The focus here will continue to be on
antiquity.
In a weak sense at least, there was always of course a degree of
unity. There is a climactic zone after all, with a partial natural
boundary to the east in the shape of the Syrian-Arabian desert,
as well as boundaries to the south and north (which is not to say
that these boundaries are easy to define, or that the internal
differences, in precipitation for example, are negligible 59 ). This
is an area of relatively moderate temperatures, except at high
altitudes, an area in which, although aridity is an extremely
common problem, 60 there is usually enough water to support
agriculture and towns. In a similar climate, and with similar
fauna and flora, the means of survival inevitably demonstrate
similarities and continuities. And ever since men learned to
cover considerable distances in boats, in the Bronze Age, a
network of maritime connections covering all or most of the
bodies of water between Phoenicia and Cadiz has virtually
always existed.
Many scholars have wanted to discover a Mediterranean
ecology with characteristics more specific than these. The classic
zone of the vine and more particularly of the olive tree have
long served as rough approximations; the southwards boundary
can be found in the northern limit of the palm tree growing in
compact palmeraies. 61 So far so good, and no one will want to
underestimate the impact of wine and olive oil on ancient
Mediterranean lives or landscapes. Braudel, as is well known,
argued for a much wider concept of the Mediterranean, more
59 On this point cf. J. D. Hughes, Pan’s Travail: Environmental Problems of
the Ancient Greeks and Romans (Baltimore, 1994), 10. For Braudel’s view of
the climactic and ecological unity see MMW, i. 234–48.
60 The point is made repeatedly: see ibid. 238–39; J. Davis, People of the
Mediterranean: an Essay in Comparative Social Anthropology (London, 1977),
41, etc. Other places in the world have Mediterranean climates—significant
parts of Australia, California, Chile, South Africa; for some useful comparisons
see F. di Castri, ‘An Ecological Overview of the Five Regions with a
Mediterranean Climate’, in R. H. Groves and F. di Castri (eds.), Biogeography
of Mediterranean Invasions (Cambridge, 1991), 3–16.
61 Cf. Braudel, MMW, i. 168.