In this first study of the Greek and Roman exploration for over half a century, Duane W. Roller presents an important examination of the impact of the Greeks and Romans on the world through the Pillars of Herakles and beyond the Mediterranean.

This is the first study in over 50 years of the Greek and Roman civilizations' explorations through the "Pillars of Herakles into the Atlantic."
Although the Greco-Roman world was centered on the Mediterranean, and classical scholarship often confined to these topographical boundaries marked by the pillars themselves, from c700BC into the Roman period a series of explorers were to discover the entire Atlantic coast, north to Iceland, Scandinavia and the Baltic, and south into the African tropics. With the Carthaginians' own discoveries - including the British Isles, the coast of Africa and the Atlantic islands - the world of classical antiquity reached from Iceland to Vietnam.
In this long-overdue project, Duane W Roller chronicles a detailed and unique account of these early pioneers and their discoveries and in doing so contributes a fascinating chapter to the history of exploration.

'Roller has performed a useful service in bringing together material that is scattered about in various chapters in the general histories of ancient geography and exploration and in updating it with the results of recent studies.' - International Journal of Nautical Archaeology