The Great Midland Sea Was the Centre of the World

In the olden days, we sailed into the great egyptian river, up to heliopolis. At another time, we took trinacrian wine and oranges into ostia. Then we sailed among the beautiful achaean islands with corn and olives. And so profiting everywhere. We lived for long a jolly, uncertain life full of hardship and pleasure. For the most part, we hugged the coasts and avoided the open sea. It was from the little bays whose mouths we thus crossed that the pirates, we greatly dreaded,. The pirates dropped down upon merchantmen like falcons when they took a vessel that resisted.