Between Pompey’s campaign against the pirates and the seaborne attacks of the Goths in the third century, the Mediterranean had been essentially the Roman empire’s inland sea. Unlike the threatening and limitless Ocean, the natural dangers of the Mediterranean environment were contained and known, and after the battle of Actium there was no need to factor in human foes. From the fourth century onwards, however, this state of affairs became progressively challenged first by the Vandalic raids from North Africa the geopolitics of which conjured up exempla of the Punic Wars, and then by the rising power of the Caliphate. Considering the length of time that the Mediterranean had enjoyed a reasonable safety and stability from hostile actors, it will be worth exploring whether these external intrusions to the sphere of Mare Nostrum had their effect on the Late Roman worldview, and whether the reflections of this process can be seen in the literary sources. My chapter will examine the newly felt expressions of vulnerability about the sea as an environment, and the ways in which they interacted with the established forms of imperial triumphalism and literary topoi, making the contested Mediterranean both intelligible and even useful to the Late Roman elites.