Mare Nostrum is Latin for Our Sea, the Roman name for the Mediterranean. It reflected how Rome, by controlling land on every side, came to treat the whole sea as its own inland waterway.
Key takeaways
- Mare Nostrum means Our Sea and was the Roman name for the Mediterranean [1].
- The Romans first used the phrase for the Tyrrhenian Sea after winning Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, and by 30 BC it covered the whole Mediterranean [1].
- At its peak, in AD 117, the empire covered 4.88 million km² around the sea.
- Later governments, including Fascist Italy, borrowed the phrase for their own aims [1].
How Mare Nostrum came about
Mare Nostrum is Latin for "Our Sea". It is the Roman name for the Mediterranean [1]. The phrase tracks Rome's growth. The Romans first applied it to the Tyrrhenian Sea, the water west of Italy, after they conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica during the Punic Wars [1]. By 30 BC, when Roman control reached from Iberia to Egypt, the term covered the whole Mediterranean [1].
Control of the sea mattered because ships were the cheapest way to move grain, soldiers, wine and oil in bulk. A sea ringed by one power was easier to cross and tax than a patchwork of rival coasts. Pirates, who had troubled the sea in the Republic, became a smaller problem once one state held the shores. That is why many historians link Rome's unity to the Mediterranean itself.
You can see the idea on the map. Step through the dates and the red area wraps around the coast of the sea instead of spreading across a single landmass. The homepage section on how big the empire was gives the overall size, and how the empire grew shows the steps. This page is about the sea they all met around.
An example from our data
Rome's reach came in stages. Sicilia was annexed in 241 BC, an early step that brought a large island into Roman hands. Aegyptus was annexed in 30 BC, which matches the date the sources give for Roman control reaching Egypt [1]. Between them, Rome's coasts connected.
Compare two snapshots. In 44 BC the Roman outline covers 1.97 million km² and 28 provinces. By AD 14, when Augustus dies, it covers 3.67 million km² across 36 provinces. The map's outlines for these two dates are rebuilt from the provinces Rome held, so the shapes are a guide, not a surveyed line.
At the peak, in AD 117, the empire covered 4.88 million km².
The thing people get wrong
The Romans did not call the Mediterranean "Mare Nostrum" from the beginning, and they did not mean that they literally owned it. The phrase grew as Rome did, and it expressed a feeling of control more than a legal claim [1]. Nor was the sea only Roman: it had been the home of Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and many others long before.
The phrase also has a modern afterlife. After Italian unification in 1861, nationalists revived it, and Fascist Italy used it in propaganda to promote an expanded empire and a strong navy [1]. In 2013 Italy gave the name to a rescue operation for migrants after the Lampedusa shipwreck [1]. So the words can carry very different meanings.
Frequently asked questions
What does Mare Nostrum mean in English?
Our Sea. It was the Roman name for the Mediterranean.
Did the Romans own the whole Mediterranean?
By the time of Augustus, Roman control reached from Spain to Egypt, so every major coast of the sea was Roman or under Roman influence.
Is Mare Nostrum used today?
Yes. In 2013 Italy named a rescue operation for migrants in the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum.
Sources
- Mare Nostrum, Wikipedia.
- Every figure from our own map is worked out from the datasets on the data sources page (checked against Ancient World Mapping Center outlines and Pleiades).