Unpopular? One of Italy's most popular historians likes to joke that, back in ancient Rome, any budding politician would have taken a post in Syria or Lybia ove

Unpopular? One of Italy's most popular historians likes to joke that, back in ancient Rome, any budding politician would have taken a post in Syria or Lybia over one in Gaul or (shudders) Britannia any day of the week. And every time, the audience just laughs and nods. The Mediterranean was a highway, not a frontier.