To the Ends of the Earth is a major history of ancient exploration, one that fully incorporates evidence from Greco-Roman sources and those in China, Central Asia, India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. It presents a compelling portrait of the adventurers who expanded knowledge of the world and brought far-flung civilizations closer than ever before.

Introduction, or, An American in Carthage 1. A World on the Move: Ancient Rulers, Traders, and Heroes 2. Apollo's Disciples: Exploration in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries BCE 3. Beyond the Mediterranean: Carthage and Persia Explore Africa and India 4. New Horizons on Land and at Sea 5. Investigating the East and South: Advances in the Hellenistic Era 6. The Romans Explore the North 7. The Globalisation of Eurasia in the First and Second Century CE 8. How the Old World Came to the New: Ancient Knowledge and Early Modern Expansion Epilogue Acknowledgements Timeline Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index of Names Index of Places

"Exploration of "new worlds" did not start with Columbus. In To the Ends of the Earth, Schulz offers a compelling, vivid account of those earlier journeys and the connectivity they brought across unfathomable distances and cultural divides. Following the trail of epic enterprises, technological innovations, and obscure knowledge-chains of Phoenicians, Greeks, Persians, and Romans, among others, Schulz' history decenters the Classical powerhouses and expands in every cardinal direction beyond colonial and imperial networks" -- Carolina López-Ruiz, Author of Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean "To the Ends of the Earth is a wonderful romp through the history of Greco-Roman exploration, revealing an important and underappreciated aspect of the ancient Mediterranean world. From Phoenician sailors to the campaigns of Alexander and the wonders described by Pytheas in the north Atlantic, Schulz reminds us how new knowledge was created, and what the impacts of newly encountered places were on the Greco-Roman world. This is a very well written and serious book, and a complete joy to read. I learned something on every single page." -- J. G. Manning, Author of The Open Sea "To the Ends Of the Earth is a synthetic and incisive discussion of why exploration took place in environments where leaving home would be a difficult and often fatal proposition. The chronological scope of the book is impressive and includes issues of why exploration seemed to come to a stop in late Roman times and then began again in the Renaissance. There is no recent book available that covers the broad range of exploration found in Schulz' book." -- Duane W. Roller, Author of Empire of the Black Sea "[Schulz'] comprehensive study of commerce, conquest and exploration follows various Bronze Age adventurers on paths that lead to Carthage, Persia, India, China and elsewhere... The dangers courted by travelers in To the Ends of the Earth will daunt its readers. The wonders paraded ought to impress or inspire them. But it is to the curiosity of the ancient explorers that we owe the greatest debt." -- Wall Street Journal "So deft is the author's handling of his material, and so lively his touch with ancient sources, that the reader never flags... Schulz has, I think, a convincing sense of why explorers' mental worlds are transcendent--always imagined before they become real, always fantastic even when experienced. His way of treating geography as a kind of literature, documented in poetry and fiction as much as in scholarship and science, helps us see explorers as they commonly saw themselves: heroes of fictions of their own, based in part on their readings, in part on their yearnings." -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Times Literary Supplement "Successfully creates a comprehensive account of explorations that took place during the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BCE) right up to the first century of the Common Era... The book rapidly covers enormous ground, and it utilizes a breadth of resourcesDLliterary, mythological, archaeological - from a vast array of Eurasian cultures in a compelling synthesis that never feels like mere survey... Highly recommended for scholarly readers, but general readers who are interested in reading titles that reevaluate when globalization began will appreciate it as well." -- Library Journal "The treatment of myths and epics as historical travel accounts obscures the subject matter. It presents a single Homer who depicted Odysseus's journey and geographical locations as informed by travelers and sailors in the Iron Age, thus disregarding the complexity of that epic's composition. The bibliography is extensive." -- Choice "To the Ends of the Earth...was the work I most admired." -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Times Literary Supplement (Books of the Year)

Raimund J. Schulz is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bielefeld and an award-winning author. Robert Savage is the author of Hölderlin after the Catastrophe and the translator of many books, including Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger's Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time.

Selling point: Provides the first modern synthesis of ancient exploration in its wider political, economic, and cultural contexts, to show why and how ancient explorers gained extensive knowledge of the world long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic Selling point: Assimilates sources from all over the ancient world, including those in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Indian/Sanskrit/Pali, and Chinese Selling point: Integrates individual expeditions, which until now were treated separately or only under geographic aspects, into the wider political and economic history of Eurasia Selling point: Considers provocative questions like why ancient mariners never crossed the Atlantic--or did they?--and how ancient exploration inspired the voyages of discovery in Early Modern Europe