Mare nostrum – mare meum

What impact do ideas of sea power have on the representation of power and political rule? How can we detect developments that lead from the possibility to rule the sea as an “anthropological basic skill”, reflected in myth and poetry, to the more functional aspect of the representation of power from Classical Greece to Late Antiquity? These questions are addressed in the chapters of this volume. Using different methodological approaches (Classical Philology, Literary Studies, History), the reference to the sea (and to large bodies of water) is discussed as a strategy to create and reinforce the legitimacy of influential political actors in antiquity, across genres, regions and times.