El Mediterráneo

The Mediterranean has been the origin of three of the most fascinating civilizations of antiquity: Egypt, Greece and Rome; witness to the birth and development of three of the major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and it bathes three of the six continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. For the peoples who have settled on its shores, it has acted as a cradle and a grave, as a link and a border, as a blessing and a battlefield. And it has inspired great writers of all time, from Homer and Virgil to Byron, Shelley and Keats, among others. John Julius Norwich, with his usual mastery, guides us through the rich and turbulent history of this sea and the civilizations it has hosted, from the Phoenicians to the Treaty of Versailles, through the Arab conquest of Syria and North Africa, the Holy Roman Empire and the Crusades, the Catholic Monarchs and the Holy Inquisition, the long sieges of Rhodes and Malta by Suleiman the Magnificent, the Berber pirates and the battle of Lepanto; Nelson and Napoleon; the Greek War of Independence and the Italian Risorgimento, the tragic Gallipoli campaign and the battle of Aqaba with the famous Lawrence of Arabia. This is a novel chronicle that narrates with elegant style and frenetic rhythm the history of the sea that gave birth to the Western world.