2016EUROMED - Fish of the Mediterranean - Souvenir Sheet

Mediterraneus, or that which lies “between the lands”, has been given different names by the people who sailed on it: it was Mare Nostrum for the Romans, who took it as their own, conquering all the regions bordering this sea; and “middle white sea” for the Arabs, who subsequently ruled the Iberian peninsula and north Africa. On the shores of what is the largest continental sea in the world, major civilisations such as the Phoenicians, the Egyptians and the Greeks rose and disappeared. Over the centuries, the Mediterranean has been a privileged place not only for major cultural and commercial transactions but also for encounters and conflicts, both dividing and bringing people together.