00:00For the Romans, the Mediterranean was everything—trade route, highway, and heart of the empire.
00:05They called it Mare Nostrum, our sea. For centuries, ships crossed these waters carrying grain,
00:13timber, marble, and metal. But while Rome ruled its surface, something was happening below.
00:20This is the story of how Rome's expansion not only conquered nations, but changed the sea itself.
00:26When Rome first rose to power, the Mediterranean was a patchwork of coasts and islands.
00:31Its waters were clear, its tides slow, and its shores lined with forests.
00:37By the first century BCE, the empire surrounded nearly every edge of it.
00:42From Spain to Egypt, the sea became a Roman lake—a unified system of trade and control.
Comments