ABSTRACT
In this section we shall complement our analysis of agriculture and industry by considering the character of trade. To a large extent this means we shall be discussing maritime trade, for in ancient Roman society a great proportion of trade was conducted by sea because of the high costs and technical difficulties of overland transport. Indeed, the maritime orientation of commerce was such a feature that the coastal character of the classic Mediterranean civilizations-especially the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Etruscans, the Minoans and, of course, the Romans-can in large part be attributed to the importance of sea trade (of course, by no means all ancient civilizations were so affected: for instance, the ancient civilizations of Assyria, Egypt and Persia were not coastal, though as is well known with these transport and communication by river played a formative role).
