Shipping adriatic wines in the roman mediterranean: A quantitative approach

The Adriatic held a high number of vineyards and during the Roman times wine was one of the most produced and demanded rural commodities. Adriatic wines were shipped and traded across the Roman Mediterranean, and the role of the NW Adriatic ports was of distributor of commodities and interface within the Mediterranean. Using archival, archaeological and pre-industrial comparative data on agricultural production, this paper assesses the NW Adriatic ports' relationships with their farming hinterlands, and their connections within the Mediterranean and the rest of the empire. The first section introduces the Adriatic port cities, hinterland and countryside, and population; the second section explores the wines and crus produced in the NW Adriatic; the third section examines the modelling of Adriatic wine production, consumption and export; the fourth sectio assesses the shipping of Adriatic wines, by examining aspects on seasonality, cargoes and markets.