The Aeolian Islands: Crossroads of Mediterranean

The Aeolian Islands, though a small archipelago, figured prominently in ancient civilisation. Their centrality in the south Tyrrhenian sea attracted the attention of outsiders, from the neighbouring regions in the eastern Mediterranean world in the proto-history period, to the Cnidians and Rhodians in the Archaic period and to the Romans afterwards; these groups controlled the islands as a whole or merely used them to exploit their strategic position together with the natural resources. Whe...