"Board game for 4-8 players. Players control ancient civilizations." The components include a map of the Mediterranean world divided up into 50 to 100 territories, different colored sets of population and city chits for each player, and a custom deck of 105 cards made up of equal numbers of the following seven card types: War, Culture, Population, Religion, Technology, Government, and Trade. Each player starts with ten population chits in a starting territory at least five spaces from the starting territories of the other players. Each player also starts with three cards, which may be freely traded during a Trade Phase. A player's hand of card grows as the player gains more cities and population. Cards must be played to perform certain types of actions: Destroy, Grow, Convert, Colonize, Disperse, and Build. "Victory: The first player to occupy over 50% of the territories with his chits wins."