This book is the fruit of an old lover of the Inner Sea that reveals to us rich elements of a vast encyclopedic learning. The historian of immense expanses and great durations puts his experience and vision at the service of prehistory and ancient cultures, which, until the completion of the Roman conquests, surrounded and created the Mediterranean.

Thus, a free and dynamic view of these cultures within their geographical surroundings, with the migrations of their populations, the breaks that oppose nomads and settled inhabitants, the endless technical evolution from the acquisition of fire to writing, as well as the definition of each great cultural creation, from the first hours of life in the Mediterranean to the flourishing of Roman culture.

Pages that, through the frescoes of megalithic monuments, pyramids, Greek temples, or basilicas, as they emerge in the blue light, send us back the image of a past that is still present. [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]