You get a mounted mapboard of the Mediterranean, divided into sea areas. The first thing you do is to remove the pieces from the sprue, attach the flags to the flagpoles, and stick em into the bases and galleys. If you break a few flagpoles, or screw up a flag, there are plenty of spares. There is room for 5 things in a galley. You could put one sailor and four cargo in, for a peaceful bulk carrier which can row one area per turn, or have five sailors and no cargo, which could move five areas in a turn and kick ass, for defensive purposes only you understand, or something in between.
All movement is by sea areas.
Each area includes the adjacent port, if any. The game revolves around trade and conquest of the Mediterranean ports, which range from the large home ports with big warehouses to dinky little ports like Crete with room for only two cargo bits. Each port also produces a cargo of some type. You get cash if you sell a cargo to a foreign port, and lots of cash if you introduce a new type of cargo to a players empire. You earn nothing for selling to a port you control, but you hope to score VPs for it at the end.