Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEGMENTS; ON NAMES; LIST OF PLATES; LIST OF MAPS; SOURCES FOR INTRODUCTORY QUOTATIONS; 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, 1460 - 700; "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 - 860; 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

Reviews

Well footnoted and fluently written...a useful and accessible work - with the Sea itself quite properly at the centre of attention. Robin Milner-Gulland, History Today In this timely book Charles King provides a stretchy timeline for the murky pool (once a lake, now a tideless sea) which has always sat on the edge of everything: Europe, Asia, civilisation, barbarism, us and other. The Guardian Review This is an essential book for anyone who feels they ought to know about what used to be called "the eastern question" and worries, secretly, that it is too late to start finding out. The Guardian A solid work by an academic historian, writing for the general educated public. He is particularly good on little known or forgotten episodes - the part played by Westerners in the development of the area. King is well placed to see through the myths of nationalists ... he has a good eye also for the victims of history. Kings work has all the virtues of good American scholarship ... vast array of sources, ... a transatlantic detachment, and the recent and very welcome fashion for elegant prose. Andrew Mango, TLS The collapse of the Soviet Union restored two great geostrategic arenas long buried in now-defunct empires or pushed to the margin by Cold War alignments. The first is Inner Asia, an immense hinterland stretching from the Chinese borderlands, across the Siberian south, to the Hindu Kush. The second is the Black Sea, a junction where the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Middle East meet. (Say no more.) To appreciate what this re-embodiment means one needs a special vantage point. King traces the Black Sea's many political incarnations from the Greeks and Scythians to the Romans, the Byzantine Christians, the Ottomans, the Russians, and the tumult of the twentieth century. Even when fractured and populated with weak and troubled states (as now), the region, King argues in this mind-broadening book, coheres-and deserves to be thought about and approached accordingly. ...essential reading for all who are dealing with the Black Sea history and archaeology. International Journal of Maritime History The collapse of the Soviet Union restored two great geostrategic arenas long buried in now-defunct empires or pushed to the margin by Cold War alignments. The first is Inner Asia, an immense hinterland stretching from the Chinese borderlands, across the Siberian south, to the Hindu Kush. The second is the Black Sea, a junction where the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Middle East meet. (Say no more.) To appreciate what this re-embodiment means one needs a special vantage point. King traces the Black Sea's many political incarnations from the Greeks and Scythians to the Romans, the Byzantine Christians, the Ottomans, the Russians, and the tumult of the twentieth century. Even when fractured and populated with weak and troubled states (as now), the region, King argues in this mind-broadening book, coheres-and deserves to be thought about and approached accordingly. Foreign Affairs