Braudel's rich, sweeping history draws on his storytelling skills and lifelong love of the Mediterranean to bring its "long and dazzling past" vividly to life - from prehistory to the fall of the Roman Empire. His "fabulous journey" takes us back to the very first settlers as they developed basic skills, to farmers in ancient Mesopotamia and slaves in Egypt, Phoenician mariners and merchants, the religious sacrifices of Carthage and the mysteries of the Etruscans, as well as the power of Greece and Rome. This is the story of the ancient Mediterranean told not as a series of "great events", but as a continuous whole, where past and present are woven into a single fabric. Braudel shows how its history has been shaped not just by war and conquest, but by the physical realities of live, and the ebb and flow of the Mediterranean itself, over countless generations.