The ancient Romans always used to privilege solidity of land to water’s restlessness. The first naval battle between the Romans and the Carthaginians (260 BC) was won by the Roman fleet thanks to their ingenious tactical innovation: the Boarding-Bridge, which transformed a deceitful sea battle into a much more comfortable land one.

From that date onwards, thanks to that clever device, the Romans rapidly became the undisputed dominators of the Mediterranean Sea, soon turned into a sort of ‘home pool’, hence renamed by them ‘Mare Nostrum’ (Latin for ‘Our Sea’), infinitely more secure and hospitable than the unknown Ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

In the title of the new ‘10 Corso Como’ 2CD Box Set the term ‘Mare Nostrum’ has obviously a totally different meaning. It defines, in an extremely concise way, the huge richness of music and culture of the many different peoples that look out to the Mediterranean basin, as wonderfully recalls Luigi Cinque in his learned preface.