• Introduction
• Itinerary
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This voyage could hardly be bettered as a conspectus of the Graeco-Roman world, a survey of the founding civilizations of the western world. The itinerary includes a good number of the places of the greatest significance in the ancient world and many of its most spectacular and beautiful archaeological sites and museums. Moreover, it is ordered more or less chronologically, looking at the earliest civilizations first and the latest last.

It begins on Crete, home of the Minoans who early in the second millennium BC developed the first Greek civilization and the most sophisticated by far to have emerged in Europe. We sail on to the Argolid, the Peloponnesian heartlands of the Myceneans who dominated much of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands c. 1600–c. 1200 BC, overlapping with and eventually usurping the Minoans.

There follow key sites of the middle centuries of the first millennium BC, the Archaic and Classical periods of ancient Greece: the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, the sacred isle of Delos and the premier city-state of Athens. An unprecedented confluence of political, military, philosophical, literary and artistic innovation made Athens the centre of the Classical civilization of the fifth century.

Sailing through the Cyclades, the ship continues along the western coast of Anatolia. Ionian Greeks settled here around 1000 BC and established a number of prosperous city states of which Miletos was the greatest. Here the Greek enlightenment took root and flourished until Persian imperialism abruptly ended that fruitful period and the torch passed to Athens.

During the last third of the final millennium BC there was a revival of prosperity and artistic endeavour, an Ionian renaissance, which is amply demonstrated by the quality and quantity of Hellenistic architecture and sculpture in the cities and sanctuaries of eastern Greece – Ephesus, Priene, Didyma, Miletus. The region is without rival for the abundance and quality of Hellenistic art.

Meanwhile the Romans steadily if haphazardly came to dominate all of the Greek world. A process of reverse acculturation occurred, for Romans enthusiastically deferred to the superiority of Greek culture and, intellectually and artistically, conquerer fell under the sway of the conquered.

The eastern area of the Greek world was the source of great wealth for the Romans. There were urban settlements enough to render new ones unnecessary, so the Roman cities were developments of Hellenistic ones – enlarged, aggrandised and endowed with yet greater luxury. The Roman cities of the region, Ephesus (capital of the province of Asia) and Aphrodisias in particular, are among the most extensive and spectacular of excavated sites.

So far eastwards did the centre of gravity of the Empire swing that at the beginning of the fourth century AD Constantine removed capital status from Rome to the hitherto relatively minor Greek city of Byzantion on the Bosphorus. At the same time he lifted the prohibition on Christianity, an act of incalculable significance. Renamed Constantinople, in due course the city became the largest in the world, the most important centre of the Church and seat of an almost unbroken succession of Caesars until final extirpation by Ottoman Turks in 1453. Another name emerged – Istanbul: and here the cruise ends.

Maritime history

The maritime history of the eastern Mediterranean is a subsidiary theme of the cruise, and the cat and mouse game played by Nelson and Napoleon a fascinating thread. The crushing victory at the battle of the Nile established the Royal Navy as the dominant naval power in the region – a dominance which lasted well into the twentieth century.

The all-important maritime aspect of the ancient world will also be examined, including the development of the swift-oared galleys and the famous trireme, and some of the epic sea battles which took place in the region, notably the battles of Salamis and Actium.

The long decline of the Ottoman empire is marked by the battles of Lepanto and Navarino, and the resurgence of Turkey by the tragedy of Gallipoli, Churchill’s failed 1917 attempt to wound Germany through its Mediterranean ally.

Music in ancient theatres

The Fitzwilliam Quartet, one of the finest of British string quartets, joins MS Columbus at Athens and stays on board until the end of the cruise in Istanbul. They perform both on the ship and ashore.

On most evenings they give a short concert, usually no more than one piece, usually after dinner, though on two days before dinner. Less conventionally, we hope that on two or three occasions individual members of the quartet may play for fifteen minutes or so in a Roman theatre. This would be a Bach solo sonata or similar. However, this plan may be disrupted by inclement weather or other circumstances.

On the penultimate day of the cruise, early in the evening, there will be a full-length concert in Istanbul. The venue for this is the great 6th-century church of Haghia Eirene, second only to Haghia Sophia as a monument of Justinian Constantinople, and now used as a concert hall.