Núria Garcia Casacuberta (2016)

Keywords: Greek and Latin literature, Alexandria, trade, market, port

Abstract:

My research focuses on the study of ancient Greek and Roman harbours from the descriptions found in the literary sources. I have divided my thesis into two main parts. In the first section, I collect and discuss the abstract data from a theoretical approach. In the second half of the work, I shall choose 3-4 case studies in order to verify with physical realities if what has been discussed in the theory section is correct, and to complete with archaeological data whatever features might be missing in the literature.

In this paper I would like to present to you the literary data supporting Alexandria as a choice for my first case study, that of an emporion or commercial port. During the investigation carried out for the first part of the thesis, a number of conclusions as to what an emporion requires or what functions it fulfils have been reached. In this paper I shall apply those to the literary data relating specifically to the port of Alexandria in Egypt in order to decide its suitability as a case-study, prior to starting work with the archaeological data.