Ancient Maritime World VII

International Workshop / Summer School 2024 

Towards Troy

The Northern Aegean in Classical Antiquity

from/to Skiathos – Sept 14th–Oct 05th

Language: German/English

The northern Aegean was both a peripheral region as well as a core area in antiquity. Located away from the Mycenaean centres in the late Bronze Age, it increasingly became the focus of the emerging Greek world from the Dark Ages onwards, as shown by the numerous early colonies founded on the coasts and islands of the region. With the Iliad and the Argonaut saga, this formerly foreign locality also occupied a central place in the mythical world of the Greeks already at an early stage, and it was not least the sea routes to the Dardanelles and the Bosporus that opened the way to the even more remote world of the Black Sea. Of course, the sea was of central significance for all these early developments, and the coexistence of Greek coastal regions and a non-Greek hinterland remained characteristic for a long time. The Athenian maritime empire of the 5th century is perhaps the clearest example of this coexistence.

It was the successes of Philip II and Alexander the Great that changed the political situation in the northern Aegean in the long term and brought the region, now largely a Macedonian sea, more into the centre of international conflicts. Roman dominance over the Hellenistic world then led to a long and largely peaceful period for the North Aegean, but the main maritime routes in the globalised Mediterranean world dominated by Rome had developed elsewhere. With the exception of the route to the Black Sea, the North Aegean was of little importance beyond the region for a long time. This was only to change in late antiquity, particularly with the invasion of Germanic tribes across the Black Sea, and a fundamental change finally took place with the founding of Constantinople as the second Rome and new capital of the empire until the 15th century, whereby the North Aegean not only became a core area of Roman rule, but the Aegean actually became the main sea of the Roman Empire, from then on referred to as the Byzantine Empire. 

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Please note: Travel by sailing yacht offers a wide range of experiences and insights into the maritime world. It does not offer the comfort of a cruise trip and means living under simple conditions in a confined space. Participation can therefore mean getting out of one's comfort zone – mentally and physically.