The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

by Paine, Lincoln

  38. Himilco: Pliny, Natural History, 2.67.169 (vol. 1:305); Avienus, Ora Maritima, 114–29, 380–89, 404–15.

  39. “like frogs round a pond”: Plato, Phaedo, 109b.

  40. The Trireme: The most thorough study is Morrison and Coates, Athenian Trireme. For an alternative view on the trireme’s development, see Wallinga, “Trireme and History.”

  41. trieres: Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 77.

  42. impressive speeds: Morrison and Coates, Athenian Trireme, 94–106; Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 281–96.

  43. tactics of trieme warfare: Whitehead, “Periplous”; Lazenby, “Diekplous.”

  44. “Seamanship, just like anything else”: Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, 1.142 (p. 121).

  45. “the beginning of evils”: Herodotus, Histories, 5.97 (p. 317).

  46. “commanded one of his servants”: Ibid., 5.105 (p. 319).

  47. “naval contingent”: Ibid., 6.95 (pp. 355–56).

  48. “So far as I know”: Ibid., 7.49 (p. 391).

  49. bridges of ships: The number of ships given by Herodotus tallies with what we know about the dimensions of the ships used. The Athenian navy’s ship sheds at Zea, near Piraeus, accommodated triremes with a beam of about 5.4 meters. Penteconters are narrower, and a mix of the two types lying side by side would comfortably span the Hellespont at its narrowest. See Morrison and Coates, Athenian Trireme, 4–5.

  50. “broad enough for two triremes”: Herodotus, Histories, 7.24 (p. 384). See Isserlin et al., “Canal of Xerxes.”

  51. “The outbreak of this war”: Herodotus, Histories, 7.44 (p. 390).

  52. “wooden walls”: Ibid., 7.141 (p. 416).

  53. “If … you rush”: Ibid., 8.68 (p. 471).

  54. “The Grecian warships”: Aeschylus, Persians, 316–430 (pp. 62–63).

  55. The battle had probably cost: Strauss, Battle of Salamis, 78–80, 104, 204.

  56. “if the Athenians”: Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, 1.93 (p. 90).

  57. “Hellenic treasurers”: Ibid., 1.96 (p. 92).

  58. “These died in war”: In McGregor, Athenians and Their Empire, 92.

  59. “The whole world”: Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, 2.62–63 (p. 160).

  60. “to the victors”: Ibid., 7.87 (p. 537).

  61. “all men of military age”: Xenophon, History of My Times, 1.6.24, 31 (pp. 82–83).

  62. “put a stop”: Ibid., 1.6.15 (p. 81).

  63. “the only form”: Austin and Vidal-Naquet, Economic and Social History, 148–50, 360.

  64. Olbia refused: Ibid., 331.

  65. “shouting crows”: Aristophanes, Acharnians, 547–55 (p. 34).

  66. Aeschylus wanted: Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.14.5 (vol. 1:75).

  67. “naval mob”: Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, 8.72 (p. 579), where Warner translates nautichos ochlos as “the men serving in the navy.” See also Aristotle, Politics (4.1291), and Plutarch, “Themistocles” (19.4).

  68. “their plausible and ready excuses”: Plato, Laws, 706c (p. 1298).

  69. “There can be no doubt”: Aristotle, Politics, 7.6.1327b (vol. 2:2106).

  70. “the largest shipowner in Hellas”: Demosthenes, “Against Aristocrates,” 23.211 (vol. 3:361). See Millett, “Maritime Loans,” 47. For a discussion of legal and popular attitudes toward maritime traders in Athens, see Reed, Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World, esp. 43–61.

  71. “I have observed”: Herodotus, Histories, 2.167 (p. 148).

  5. Carthage, Rome, and the Mediterranean

  1. “overcome the ships”: Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 1.20.1 (p. 85).

  2. “went ashore where”: Ibid., 3.1.5 (p. 225).

  3. The establishment of Alexandria: Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 1:25–27; Strabo, Geography, 17.1.6–10 (vol. 8:23–43).

  4. Gelon, tyrant: Herodotus, Histories, 7.158–61 (pp. 424–25).

  5. Tomb of the Ship: Hagy, “800 Years of Etruscan Ships,” 242–43, fig. 38; Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 70, and fig. 97; and Brendel, Etruscan Art, 271–73.

  6. They also employed rams: Herodotus, Histories, 1.166 (p. 66).

  7. “masters of the sea”: Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 11.51 (vol. 4:257).

  8. “under the command of Hamilcar”: Herodotus, Histories, 7.165–66 (p. 426). See Green, Greco-Persian Wars, 120–22, 148–49.

  9. polyremes: Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 97–116. For an ancient understanding of the development of galleys, see Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 7.56.206–9 (vol. 2:645–47).

  10. “was a single-banked vessel”: Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire, 1.23 (p. 66).

  11. Roman quinqueremes: Ibid., 1.26 (p. 69).

  12. timber supplies: Meiggs, Trees and Timber, 133–39.

  13. Ptolemy IV’s “forty”: Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 5.203e–204d (vol. 2:421–25), written around 200 ce, four centuries after the fact. Descriptions and diagrams of the “forty” can be found also in Casson, Ancient Mariners, 131–33, and Ships and Seamanship, 108–12.

  14. Leontophoros: Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 112–14.

  15. “had a speed”: Plutarch, Lives, “Demetrius,” 43.5 (vol. 9:109). See Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 140n20.

  16. lead sheets: Hocker, “Lead Hull Sheathing in Antiquity,” 199.

  17. “All had floors”: Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 5.206d–209b. See Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 184–99.

  18. “such sound practical use”: Polybius, Histories, 5.88 (vol. 3:219). See Casson, “Grain Trade,” 73.

  19. “the constant protectors”: Polybius, Histories, 27.4 (vol. 6:495).

  20. triemiolia: Gabrielsen, Naval Aristocracy of Hellenistic Rhodes, 86–89.

  21. “necessities” and luxury goods: Polybius, Histories, 4.38 (vol. 2:395).

  22. imposed a toll on ships: Ibid., 4.47–48 (vol. 2:415–27).

  23. “It was a witty”: Saint Augustine, City of God, 4.4, in Pennell, Bandits at Sea, 18.

  24. pretentious abhorrence of seafaring: Many modern historians affirm this view. Arnold Toynbee is an eloquent exception: “The Roman Empire has made its mark on the mind of posterity as a land power which gave mobility to its invincible infantry by constructing and maintaining a magnificent network of roads. Yet, in truth, sea-power, not land-power, was the instrument with which the Romans extended their empire from Italy to the whole perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea.” Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World, 323.

  25. “while the rest were burnt”: Livy, Rome and Italy, 8.14 (p. 179). On the rostra in the forum, see Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 16.2.8 (vol. 4.391–93).

  26. coloniae maritimae: Salmon, “Coloniae Maritimae”; Thiel, History of Roman Seapower.

  27. “more dangerous and less free”: Gellius, Attic Nights, 16.13.9.

  28. “on a voyage of inspection”: Appian, Roman History (Samnite History), 7 (vol. 1:77).

  29. Pyrrhus was an expansionist: Franke, “Pyrrhus,” 475; Thiel, History of Roman Seapower, 29.

  30. “those who are impressed”: Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire, 1.63 (p. 109).

  31. “The harbours had communication”: Appian, Roman History (Punic Wars), 14.96 (vol. 1:567).

  32. “were handling the operations”: Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire, 1.20 (pp. 62–63).

  33. “was on the water”: Pliny, Natural History, 16.74.192 (vol. 4:513).

  34. Punic Ship: Frost, “Marsala Punic Ship”; Frost et al., Lilybaeum (Marsala).

  35. corvus: Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire, 1.22 (p. 65). Corvus is the Latin translation for the Greek korax (“crow”), the word by which the device was called by both Romans and Greeks in antiquity. See Wallinga, Boarding-Bridge of the Romans.

  36. “the fighting seemed”: Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire, 1.23 (p. 66).

  37. “the southern coast of Sicily”: Ibid., 1.37 (p. 82).

  38. why it is not mentioned: Goldsworthy, Punic Wars, 116.

  39. steady supplies of grain: Casson, “Grain Trad
e,” 82.

  40. “He discovered”: Polybius, Rise of the Roman Empire, 10.8 (p. 408).

  41. “naval mentality”: Briscoe, “Second Punic War,” 66.

  42. “It took Hannibal”: Publius Sulpicius, in Livy, Rome and the Mediterranean, 31.7 (p. 28).

  43. “free in appearance only”: Livy, Rome and the Mediterranean, 35.32 (p. 216).

  44. “The essential unity”: Errington, “Rome Against Philip and Antiochus,” 284.

  45. “Roman arms”: In Livy, Rome and the Mediterranean, 36.41 (p. 275).

  46. “because with the loss”: Ibid., 37.31 (p. 308).

  47. harbor dues: Habicht, “Seleucids and Their Rivals,” 337.

  48. “Carthage must be destroyed”: Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 1.31 (p. 137).

  49. “Sulla burned the Piraeus”: Appian, Roman History (Mithridatic Wars), 12.41 (vol. 2:311).

  50. “Many times”: Ibid., 12.119 (vol. 2:471).

  51. “a hundred and ten bronze-beaked ships”: Plutarch, Lives, “Lucullus,” 37.3 (vol. 2:595).

  52. “Need I lament”: Cicero, Pro Lege Manilia, 12 (pp. 45–47).

  53. twelve thousand gold pieces: Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, “Julius Caesar,” 4, 74 (pp. 11, 40).

  54. “for a pirate is not included”: Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis, 3.107), in Souza, Piracy in the Greco-Roman World, 150; Coke, Third Part of the Institutes, 113. For current uses, see for example, U.S. Dept. of State press release, “The Secretary and the Minister Agreed That Terrorism Is a Common Enemy of Mankind.” (“U.S., Republic of Korea Hold Security Consultative Meeting,” Nov. 15, 2001, http://www.pentagon.gov/releases/2001/b11152001_bt588-01.html.)

  55. “to oppose all legislation”: Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, “Julius Caesar,” 19 (p. 16).

  56. “for having been forced”: Plutarch, Lives, “Pompey,” 76.3 (vol. 5:313). Pharsalus was twentyfive miles from the nearest inlet of the Aegean.

  57. prefect of the fleet: Welch, “Sextus Pompeius and the Res Publica,” 37–41.

  58. “put on white robes”: Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, “Augustus,” 98 (p. 104).

  59. pozzolana: Oleson, “Technology of Roman Harbors,” 148. The word comes from 13, the modern name for Puteoli. See Vitruvius, De Architectura, 5.12 (vol. 1:311–17).

  60. Lucullus’s villa: D’Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples, 109.

  61. “fish-pond fanciers”: See Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 1.19 (p. 87), 1.20 (p. 95), and 2.9 (p. 137).

  62. local oyster beds: Pliny, Natural History, 9.79.168–69 (vol. 3:277–79); D’Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples, 136–38.

  63. night service from Ostia to Puteoli: D’Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples, 134.

  64. “a collapsible cabin-boat”: Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, “Nero,” 34 (p. 227).

  65. “massive / Piers”: Juvenal, Satires, 12:75–79 (p. 243).

  66. “it was first sunk”: Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, “Claudius,” 20 (p. 193). The obelisk, which now stands in front of St. Peter’s in Rome, weighs 322 tons—not including the pedestal; Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 188–89.

  67. Piazzale of the Corporations: Scrinari and Lauro, Ancient Ostia, 22–24.

  68. “Incidentally, what a huge ship!”: Lucian, “The Ship or the Wishes,” 5–6 (vol. 6:435–37). The dimensions are length, fifty-five meters; beam, fourteen meters; depth of hold, thirteen meters.

  69. “They should have kept”: Lucian, “The Ship or the Wishes,” 9 (vol. 6:441). See Casson, “Isis and Her Voyage,” 47–48, and Ancient Mariners, 208–9.

  70. the apostle Paul: Acts 27–28.

  71. the annona: McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 87, 104–5, 108–10. The populist practice of providing free wheat dates from the second century BCE; the phrase panem et circenses (bread and circuses) was coined by Juvenal in the first century ce.

  72. “Money lent on maritime loans”: Paulus, Sententiae II, xiv, 3, in Temin, “Economy of the Early Roman Empire,” 144.

  73. “he held out the certainty”: Suetonius, Twelve Caesars, “Claudius,” 18 (p. 192). See Longnaker, “History of Insurance Law,” 644–46.

  74. grain traders: Temin, “Economy of the Early Roman Empire,” 137.

  75. wine trade: Tchernia, “Italian Wine in Gaul,” 92.

  76. “When he was about”: Plutarch, Lives, “Pompey,” 50 (vol. 5:247).

  77. “god, our author”: Seneca, Natural Questions, “Winds,” 5.18.13–14 (vol. 2:121–23).

  6. Chasing the Monsoons

  1. “you brought him”: Rig Veda, 1.116.5 (p. 287).

  2. “who knows the path”: Ibid., 1.25.7 (p. 61). See Hornell, “Role of Birds in Early Navigation.”

  3. “should look after activities”: Kautilya Arthasastra, 2.28.1 (vol. 2:162). The authorship and date of the Arthasastra are controversial; the earliest written version may date to the second century CE but is probably based on a compilation of various documents going back five centuries.

  4. “He should rescue”: Ibid., 2.28.8–9 (vol. 2:162).

  5. “big boats”: Ibid., 2.28.13 (vol. 2:163).

  6. “render services”: Strabo, Geography, 15.1.46 (vol. 7:81).

  7. director of trade: Kautilya Arthasastra, 2.16.1–25 (vol. 2:127–29) and 3:176–79.

  8. “involving little expenditure”: Ibid., 7.12.18–21 (vol. 2:360).

  9. “making voyages”: Baudhayana, 2.1.2 (Müller, Sacred Books, 14:217–18).

  10. “Let him who teaches”: pastamba Prasna, 1.11.32.27 (Müller, Sacred Books, 2:98).

  11. proscriptions on seafaring: Pearson, “Introduction,” pp. 17–18; Winius, “Portugal’s ‘Shadow Empire,’ ” 255.

  12. “social and religious duties”: Manu, Laws of Manu, xviii.

  13. the four main castes: Ibid., 8.410 (p. 195); “When men who are expert”: 8.157 (p. 169); “there is no definite rule”: 8.406–409 (p. 195). Whether and for whom charging interest is legal is a complicated question in both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Some early texts deemed the charging of interest a crime worse than abortion or murdering a Brahman, although it was allowed to commoners, but regulations were relaxed in the medieval period. See Sharma, “Usury in Early Medieval Times.”

  14. “A hundred fifty thousand people”: Major Rock Edict XIII, in Thapar, Early India, 181.

  15. “Lord of the Ocean”: In Tripati, Maritime Archaeology, 29.

  16. writing itself: Salomon, “On the Origin of the Early Indian Scripts,” 278.

  17. “he recognized all”: Aryasura, Once the Buddha Was a Monkey, 96, 98. Aryasura’s Sanskrit version, which dates to the early centuries of the common era, is based on the older Pali “Supparaka-Jataka” (Cowell, Jataka, vol. 4:86–90).

  18. “My child”: In Levi, “Manimekhala,” 603–5. See “Mahajana-Jataka,” in Cowell, Jataka, 6:21–22).

  19. “never wept nor lamented”: In Levi, “Manimekhala,” 603.

  20. “precaution against the dangers”: In ibid., 599.

  21. “had his whole body burnt”: In ibid., 603–5.

  22. “the entire world”: In Pritchard, Ancient Near East, 1:208.

  23. “the shallows”: Arrian, Indica, 8.41 (vol. 2:427).

  24. Darius may have completed: Redmount, “Wadi Tumilat.” See above, chap. 4.

  25. “after a voyage”: Herodotus, Histories, 4.44 (p. 230).

  26. “Alexander had a vehement desire”: Arrian, Indica, 8.20–21 (vol. 2:363–67). Arrian (and Strabo) drew on a now lost account of India written by Nearchus.

  27. The monsoons are determined: Somerville and Woodhouse, Ocean Passages for the World, 82–88, 117–27.

  28. “ships of war”: Arrian, Indica, 19 (p. 363). In antiquity, the Pasitigris River flowed directly into the Persian Gulf. Now called the Karun, it flows into the Shatt al-Arab.

  29. “ten talents [300 kilograms] of frankincense”: In Salles, “Achaemenid and Hellenistic Trade,” 260. The earliest mentions (before the seventh century ce) of cinnamon and cassia refer not to th
e cinnamon and cassia of India, Southeast Asia, and China, but to otherwise unidentified wild shrubs or small trees native to southern Arabia and East Africa. See Crone, Meccan Trade, 253–64.

  30. “five hundred talents”: Polybius, Histories, 13.9 (vol. 4:427).

  31. “The governor of Mesene”: Pliny, Natural History, 6.152 (vol. 2:453). See Potts, “Parthian Presence,” 277.

  32. Charax Spasinou: Salles, “Achaemenid and Hellenistic Trade,” 256; Casson, Periplus, 180.

  33. “the people are made torpid”: Agatharchides, On the Erythraean Sea, 101c (p. 164, note “m”).

  34. “using large rafts”: Ibid., 103a (p. 167).

  35. Agatharchides of Cnidus: None of Agatharchides’ work is preserved by itself, but portions of books 1 and 5 were transcribed by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Photius. These fragments have been published in Agatharchides of Cnidus, On the Erythraean Sea.

  36. “This tribe surpasses in wealth”: Agatharchides, On the Erythraean Sea, 104b (p. 167).

  37. “The houses of the Sa-poh”: Faxian [Fa-hian], Travels of Fa-Hian, chap. 38 (p. lxxiv).

  38. “The Red Sea ports”: Sidebotham, “Ports of the Red Sea,” 27.

  39. elephants from East Africa: The Ptolemaic elephant corps employed forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), which are smaller than Indian elephants and the better known savanna elephant, Loxodonta africana Africana. See Agatharchides, On the Erythraean Sea, 10n2.

  40. Myos Hormos: Peacock and Blue, eds., Myos Hormos-Quseir al-Qadim, 1–6.

  41. “the sea, being all shoals”: Agatharchides, On the Erythraean Sea, 85b (pp. 141–42).

  42. “one can see”: Ibid., 105a (p. 169).

  43. “he promised to act”: Strabo, Geography, 2.3.4 (vol. 1:377–79).

  44. “he found Cleopatra”: Plutarch, Lives, “Antony,” 69.3 (vol. 9:295–97). Although Plutarch seems to describe a north–south route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, a distance of nearly two hundred kilometers, sixty kilometers is about the length of the ancient east–west canal.

  45. “on account of difficult sailing”: Strabo, Geography, 16.4.23 (vol. 7:357).

  46. “learned that as many”: Ibid., 2.5.12 (vol. 1:455); not so many as twenty: 17.1.13 (8:53); “music girls”: 2.3.4 (1:381).