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Since the Neolithic seafaring allowed people to move over long distances. The coasts all across the Great Sea were touched by groups of seafarers that using long boats and coastal cabotage ventured by sea looking for new settlements or obsidian and other raw materials. During the III and first half of the II millennium BC sail navigation and innovations in naval technology rapidly developed in the eastern Mediterranean. This technical advance allowed to shorten distances, but lead seamanship to become a specialised task that required profound knowledge of the sea as an environment. Meteorology, oceanographic conditions and coastal morphology was necessary knowledge required to face the seascape. Most of this phenomenon was both fostered and exploited by the rising important local polities of the Bronze Age and the result was a high degree of connectivity within the eastern basin. More fragmentary appears to be the picture of contemporary maritime connections in the central and western basins, the main areas of interest of this study. Here eastern naval technological innovations will not arrive until the second half of the millennium. However in the same time span as in the east, local more modest, sea routes, begin to emerge. These implied the crossing of large portions of open sea. Despite the risk this type of navigation, favoured the colonisation of remote islands and the spread of local cultures during the copper age, and by the Early Bronze Age some common cultural patterns can be recognised in different regions but overall seafaring remains relevant on a local scale. By the second half of the II millennium BC these two realities began to be increasingly interconnected due to the opening of consistent long-range sea routes. From the XVII to the XII century BC, Aegean material culture and influences spread in the west all along these new sea routes. These were far from static and changed and evolved both in extension and in location of key nodes, leaving conspicuous amounts of traces behind. Starting from these traces, this work aims to investigate the sea routes that emerged during the Bronze Age for navigating in the central and western Mediterranean, how these evolved and expanded throughout the centuries, and what type of contacts and interconnections arose due to these maritime voyages, their nature and their intensity. Furthermore a diachronic study will be attempted by comparing the knowledge acquired on the sea routes of the Bronze Age with the routes and evidences of the Iron Age. The aim of this second part of the study would be to investigate the possible existence of trends and patterns in the choice and drawing of sea routes, surviving in later periods.

The town of Ravenna, in northern Italy, today contains eight buildings listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, all dating between the fifth and the sixth centuries - a time when it was one of the most important cities of the Mediterranean. The Roman town underwent a major transformation at the beginning of the fifth century, from a small Roman 'Municipium' to an Imperial capital. This role called for new buildings of power, housing the Imperial Court and the related bureaucratic body, a Bishop's Palace and other monuments suche as the Circus. In addition this walls, churches and others community zones were created; all following late antique models such as Milan, the previous capital, and of course Constantinople. An expansion of Ravenna's infrastructures was also necessary, in particular new roads and sewer system, a port, warehouses, and aqueducts. From the fifth century to the Early Medieval period Ravenna flourished as one of the main centres of North Italy and during this period its archbishop played an important role in the religion, politics and economy of the region. This paper seeks to illustrate the archaeological evidence related to the 'longue durée' of the urban centre of Ravenna as a fulcrum of power and control.

The town of Ravenna, in northern Italy, today contains eight buildings listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, all dating between the fiflh and the sixth centuries - a time when it was one of the most important cities of the Mediterranean. The Roman town under­went a major tranformation at the beginning of the fifth century, from a small Roman 'Municipium' to an Imperial capital. This role called far new buildings of power, housing the Imperial Court and the related bureaucratic body, a Bishop's Palace and other monu­ments such as the Circus. In addition city-walls, churches and others community zones were created; all following late antique models such as Milan, the previous capital, and of course Constantinople. An expansion ef Ravenna's infrastructures was also necessary, in particular new roads and sewer system, a port, warehouses, and aqueducts. From the fifth century to the Early Medieval period Ravenna flourished as one of the main centres of North Italy and during this period its archbishop played an important role in the religion, politics and economy of the region. This paper seeks to illustrate the archaeological evidence related lo the 'langue durée' of the urban center of Ravenna as a fulcrum of power and control.

This essay examines the political destiny and function in government of the civic institutions and élites of formerly independent urban polities once they had settled into the new political context of the Italian regional states in the fifteenth century. Research conducted from the 1970s onwards has established the greater weakness of Padua's municipal institutions and élite in relation to Venice, as compared to the experience of many other cities of the Terraferma dominion. The essay focuses on the profile of issues connected with land in the Paduan civic council's activity in the later fifteenth century, also seeking to gauge the extent of its autonomy in policy-making and its perception of its role, especially in relation to the action of Venetian authority. The archival material used concerns both the activity of the Paduan council and the more general conduct of government in Venice and Padua.

The essay discusses theoretical and practical aspects of politics, war and diplomacy in late fifteenth-century Italy, using Machiavelli's works as an example of theory, Venetian foreign policy as an example of practice. The attempt to present Machiavelli as a founding father of the Realist school of International Relations is considered and dismissed. Major features of Machiavelli's thought are treated: his vision of the intimate connections between foreign affairs, war and political life; his distinguishing power from force; and his grasp of the importance of reputation. The value of these as a guide to the politics of Italy between 1454 and 1494 is assessed, with particular reference to Venice, and to the merits and defects of Machiavelli's famous comparison between ancient Rome and Venice. The career of Roberto di Sanseverino is examined to show that one premise upon which that comparison was based, that condottieri were unreliable, was sometimes well founded.