Servicing the Mediterranean Empire: Non-state Actors and Maritime Logistics in Antiquity

This article highlights the intense involvement of non-state actors in the development and maintenance of maritime logistics in antiquity. Among their many other functions, non-state actors also came to serve the various needs of central Mediterranean forces, such as the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman empires. While the arbitrary, opportunistic nature of this process is emphasized, notions of imperial grand strategy are found to be less important and are ultimately dismissed.