History of the Mediterranean region Alexandria. Mesopotamia became a fringe border region between the Roman Empire and the Persians. When Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Mediterranean sea began to be called "Mare Nostrum" (Latin: "Our Sea") by the Romans. Their empire was centered on this sea and all the area was full of commerce and naval development. For the first time in history, an entire sea (the Mediterranean) was free of piracy. For several centuries, the Mediterranean was a "Roman Lake", surrounded on all sides by the empire. The empire began to crumble, however, in the fifth century and Rome collapsed after 476 CE.
Operation Mare Nostrum and Italian Air Force. The navy units deployed consisted of: The air units involved helicopters, one MM P180 aircraft equipped with FLIR, two Camcopter S-100 unmanned aerial vehicles on board "San Giusto" ship and two maritime patrol aircraft. There was also one forward logistic site in Lampedusa for logistics support. According to Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, the government spent about €114 million ($142 million) on Operation Mare Nostrum. Foreign contributions Slovenia was the sole external contributor to the operation. It provided its patrol vessel "Triglav", which assisted in general surveillance of the waters surrounding Lampedusa from December 15th, 2013