The culture of drinking wine was enjoyed throughout the Mediterranean world, and what is true now was true in antiquity, too: wine is always good business. The Hellenistic Period (c. 335-30 BCE), between Alexander the Great and Cleopatra VII, witnessed the expansion of trade relations over an ever-growing area, bringing distant regions into direct or indirect contact with each other. Through routes of long-distance trade, goods from Northwest Europe, the Middle East, Arabia, India, and Central Asia reached the Mediterranean. For the first time in history even produce from China reached the Mediterranean, which lay the foundation of the Silk Road. From luxury goods to food, products were exchanged in a swiftly developing consumer society. Think of precious gems, gold and silver, herbs and spices, perfumes and oils, silk and linen, elephants and slaves, grains such as wheat, emmer and rice, olive oil and fish sauce, parchment and papyrus, beer and wine.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1502/wine-culture-in-the-hellenistic-mediterranean/.
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