The lands surrounding the Black Sea share a colourful past. Though in recent decades they have experienced ethnic conflict, economic collapse, and interstate rivalry, their common heritage and common interests go deep. Now, as a region at the meeting point of the Balkans, Central Asia, and the
Middle East, the Black Sea is more important than ever. In this lively and entertaining book, which is based on extensive research in multiple languages, Charles King investigates the myriad connections that have made the Black Sea more of a bridge than a boundary, linking religious communities,
linguistic groups, empires, and later, nations and states.
1. An Archaeology of Place
People and Water
Region, Frontier, Nation
Beginnings
Geography and Ecology
2. Pontus Euxinus, 700BC - AD400
The Edge of the World
"Frogs Around a Pond"
"A Community of Race"
How a Scythian Saved Civilization
The Voyage of
Argo
"More Barbarous Than Ourselves"
Pontus and Rome
Dacia Traiana
The Expedition of Flavius Arrianus
The Prophet of Abonoteichus
3. Mare Maggiore, 400 - 1460
"The Scythian Nations Are One"
Sea-Fire
Khazars, Rhos, Bulgars, and Turks
Business in Gazaria
Pax
Mongolica
The Ship from Caffa
Empire of the Comneni
Turchia
An Ambassador from the East
4. Kara Deniz, 1500 - 1700
"The Source of All the Seas"
"To Constantinople - to be sold!"
Domn, Khan, and Derebey
Sailors' Graffiti
A Navy of Seagulls
5. Chernoe More,
1700 - 1860
Sea and Steppe
A Flotilla on Azov
Cleopatra Processes South
The Flight of the Kalmoucks
A Season in Kherson
Rear Admiral Dzhons
New Russia
Fever, Ague, and Lazaretto
A Consul in Trabzon
Crimea
6. Black Sea, 1860 - 1990
Empires, States, and
Treaties
Steam, Wheat, Rail, and Oil
"An Ignoble Army of Scribbling Visitors"
Trouble on the Kostence Line
The Unpeopling
"The Division of the Waters"
Knowing the Sea
The Prometheans
Development and Decline
7. Facing the War
Bibliography
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Charles King is at Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government, and Ion Ratiu Chair of Romanian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington D.C..