Ships and sea-power before the great Persian War : : the ancestry of the ancient trireme / / by H.T. Wallinga.

• Superior document: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum, 121
• Author: Wallinga, H. T.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, New York : : E.J. Brill,, 1993.
• Year of Publication: 1993
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Mnemosyne, Supplements 121.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xv, 217 pages) :; illustrations.

This book presents a new theory about the developments in shipping and naval organization that culminated in the invention - around 530 BC in the eastern Mediterranean - of the trireme, and the subsequent adoption of this first specialized warship of antiquity by all the naval powers of the time. New interpretations are proposed of Greek and Assyrian iconographic data and of hitherto ignored evidence in Herodotos and Thukydides, the non-military factors determining developments are emphasized. Thukydides' fundamental essay on the genesis of Greek sea-powers is studied in depth, the rarity of these sea-powers stressed, and the peculiar background of the naval power of Phokaia and the Samian tyrant Polykrates exposed. The problem of the trireme's place of origin, the factors determining its invention, probably in Saïte Egypt, and its immediate adoption by the Persian king Kambyses are discussed. The first naval operations of the Persians are surveyed, reasons and circumstances of the trireme's introduction into the navies of the Greek city-states analysed with special attention for Themistokles' navy bill. The book offers ancient historians and classical philologists a radically new approach to archaic maritime and naval history. It will also be useful to (nautical) archaeologists.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Thukydides and early naval developments -- Shipping in the eighth century B.C. -- The new Greek sea-powers of the sixth century B.C -- The invention of the trireme and the creation of the Persian navy -- The trireme in Hellas: Themistokles’ navy bill and the Persians -- Epilogue -- The crews of Greek and Persian triremes -- Bibliography -- Index of ancient authors cited -- General Index -- Illustrations -- Supplements to Mnemosyne by A.D. Leeman , C.J. Ruijgh and H.W. Pleket.