To the Ends of the Earth

A sweeping history of ancient exploration, the first full-scale account in over a centuryOdysseus.Jason and the Argonauts. Heracles. Greek mythology is full of tales of heroes setting out for the unknown.Such tales reflected and instilled a sense of confidence in the Greeks as they explored the limits of their world.Their voyages of discovery (and conquest), most dramatically under Alexander the Great, are but the most famous examples of ancient exploration.These expeditions were built on earlier voyages, notably those by Bronze Age Egyptians and Mesopotamians, and led to further global travel, trade, and warfare among the Romans, Persians, Scythians, Indians, and Chinese.To the Ends of the Earth is the first modern history of ancient exploration in over a century.Ranging from the Mediterranean Bronze Age to the third century CE, it reveals long-distance, explorative campaigning to be more than a mere ephemeral phenomenon of ancient history.Rather, exploration was, and still is, an int