OCEAN INFLUENCE
on the development of western civilization
three historical turning
g points
p
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There are four cities on this map that were contending for political and economic dominance over the
eastern Mediterranean in the final
f
500 years bc. We will consider Sardis,
S
Athens, Carthage
C
and Rome.
During this interval of western civilization development there were numbers of encounters at sea that
exerted influence of historical significance. We will focus on two of these ancient conflicts with GrecoPersian War antagonists Athens and Sardis and the Punic War’s Carthage and Rome. For the third,
there was an encore of the Punic War played out over 2400 years later during WW 2.
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FIRST HISTORY LESSON ….
In 499 bc, the Greek city-states [red stars] of Ionia on the western border of the Persian Empire revolted against tyrant
Persian governors, tax burdens and conscription for the Persian Army. During the rebellion, Sardis was sacked and the
temple of the goddess Artemis was burned, a sacrilegious act hereafter providing an excuse for retaliatory outrages.
The rebellion was put down by 494 but not before the Greek city-states of Athens [ATTICA] and Eretria [on the island of
Euboea] heeded a call from Ionian Greeks for aid [A=20 ships; E=5 ships]. They should have declined the invitation.
This was the beginning of the Greco-Persian Wars. Persian emperor Darius I was not pleased, assembled the
formidable Persian army/fleet and, in 490, mounted a punitive expedition to teach A&E lessons not soon to be forgotten.
Eretria was destroyed but on the way to Athens, the numerically superior Persian Army discovered Greek Hoplite
warriors Unpleasant.
warriors.
Unpleasant The Persian
Persian’s
s were beaten by Athen
Athen’s
s “National
National Guard troops
troops” at the Battle of Marathon.
Marathon All
Persia was not pleased. And the Greeks had learned something Darius had not intended; together, they endured.
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Greece regarded the victory at Marathon as a positive development encouraged by new political
democratic reforms and so opened even more elected offices to the populace. As one result, the
mining of silver in Laurium north of Athens was partly turned to the production and manning of a
naval fleet of 200 triremes; good idea.
In Persia, Darius dies (486) and his son, Xerxes, is enthroned. Xerxes decides its time to conquer
Greece once and for all and invasion #2 was launched in 486 with a massive army and navy.
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Invasion # 2
Xerxes twice bridged
g
Hellespont
p
near
Abydos where the waters are only
seven stadia or about one mile wide.
Egyptian and Phoenician engineers
first tried by lashing old ships together
with ropes. Bad Luck, it was destroyed
by a storm. Xerxes had the heads of
the engineers cut off and the offending
waters of Hellespont given 300 lashes
with chains. Maniac.
Two new bridges, side by side, were
constructed by renegade Greek engin
engineers using 674 anchored ships. One
bridge for the army of over 100,000
strong and the other for their animals
and baggage.
baggage Myth (or not) has it that
the army took a week to march over.
Departing at the same time was a fleet
of supply and war ships that numbered
in the thousands (myth or not) and
paralleled the army’s movement around
the shorelines of the Aegean Sea
g Thrace and on to Greece.
through
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The Greek coalition organized a defensive holding position reaching from
a mountainside-seaside pass, Thermopoylae, west to a naval base at
Artemesium, and the island of Euboea. The Alpenoi garrison of 4,000
included 300 Spartan hoplites, destiney’s chosen, 400 Corinthians and
400 Thebans. They and the Greek navy were to delay the Persians while
mainland Greece was evacuated to Salamis and Peloponnesus.
It was well-known that the oracle at Delphi had fore-told Sparta would be
saved if one of its Kings died and further advised prayers for winds.
The Persian fleet sailed to reach Artemisium and anchored at Squid’s
Cape, an anchorage too small to contain the entire fleet. Ships anchored
offshore, in lines eight deep, fell victim to storm winds. Of the 1200 ships
that reached the Cape, 400 and most of their crews were lost.
Spartan King Leonidas, commander of the Alpenoi garrison, learned that a
local civilian traitor had informed Xerxes of the mountain pass that flanked
the Phocian wall, the narrow position chosen to block the road south.
Leonidas ordered the garrison to withdraw, retaining the 700 Spartan and
Th b warriors
Theban
i
f a last
for
l t stand.
t d
Xerxes sent a first wave of Medes and Elamites and it was repulsed. On
the second day, the second wave brought thousands of the
Immortals, Xerxes elite royal body-guard, to the wall with the
same result.
result
On the third day the Greeks were encircled by
Persians using the mountain pass, Leonidas was slain, and a
ferocious struggle ensued to rescue his body from the enemy. The
Thebans surrendered and the remaining Spartans were forced to
retreat to a small hill where they were killed, at a distance, by
Persian archers.
h
The way was finally open to central Greece. Athens was abandoned
after the countryʼs population and what was left of their army was
crammed into Salamis and the Peloponnesus. The Persian army
advanced,
d
d sacked
k d Athens,
Ath
b
burning
i
th Acropolis.
the
A
li
All that
th t stood
t d
between the Persians and Sparta were the Straits of Salamis and
the Greek navy. The stage was set for one of the great sea battles
of the ancient world.
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Assyrian penteconter …. 700 bc
Greek bireme ….
500 bc
Greek trireme ….
500
bc
These are the types of warships that engaged during the battle in the Straits of Salamis.
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This is the trireme Olympias, a warship of the present Greek Navy in the Salamis Straits
headed to her sea trials. No wreck of a trireme has ever been found. However her design was
reproduced by John Morrison, a historian at the University of Cambridge, and a British naval
architect, John Coates after years of research. Oylmpias was built by the Greek Navy and
launched in 1987.
1987 She is 37 meters in length.
length Powered by 170 men,
men she is armed with a bronze
ram, leading at the surface in the foreground. In a sprint lasting a few seconds, this ship
managed a speed of 9 knots. Historians credit the assembled Greek naval force at the battle of
Salamis with 200 triremes. So there were 34,000 Greek oarsmen there as well. The Persian
f
force
was larger,
l
b t given
but
i
att least
l
t 200 triremes,
ti
th
there
were 400 vessels
l and
d 68,000
68 000 sailors
il
i
in
the mile-wide Straits during the day-long battle.
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A low angle, digital, satellite infrared image of the Strait of Salamis taken the day before the battle.
In the background, the fires set by Persians are burning in Athens and Piraeus. Not. The hillside
occupied by Xerxes is in the upper left and the city of Salamis is in the foreground.
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The naval battle in the Straits of Salamis decided the
fate of Greece. The leaders were the Greek
commander-in-chief Themistocles and the Persian
Grand Admiral, Artemisia. The latter is known as the first
recorded woman to command a nation’s fleet at sea.
The battle took place in late September, 480 bc. The
naval defeat at Salamis did not end the Persain efforts.
The un-defeated Persian army remained in Greece until
the Spring of 479 when it was defeated at Plataea.
Plataea On
the same day as Plataea, another Greek army defeated
the Persians at Mycale in Ionia, Asia Minor. This
brought to a close the Persian attempts to crush Greece.
The Greek victory at Salamis was not in any sense an
easy one. Prior to the engagement, there was a division in the fleet brought on by the overwhelming number
of enemy vessels arrayed against them; stay or run was
debated. Themistocles had to be rudely outspoken and
censored
d in
i war council,
il threaten
th t the
th removall off Athen’s
Ath ’
triremes by taking Athen’s people to Sicily, and employing a ruse that fooled Xerxes. The ruse was effective. A
false traitor was sent to the Persians on the mainland to
p p
planned to escape
p to
let them know that the Greek ships
the north through the Bay of Eleusis. Xerxes took this
bait and split his fleet, sending the Egyptian squadron around Salamis to enter the Bay from the south. The reports of this
deployment convinced the Greek commanders that they were trapped and had to fight. The Greek fleet was at anchor in
three embayments on the Southern side of the Strait. Xerxes had his throne set up on a hillside overlooking the Strait in
anticipation
ti i ti off destroying
d t i the
th Greek
G k fleet
fl t and
d opening
i the
th door
d
t Sparta.
to
S t The
Th day
d began
b
with
ith the
th Corinthian
C i thi fleet
fl t feigning
f i i
flight to the north, a move that drew the Persian fleet into the Strait. When that was well underway, the Greek triremes
came out of the southern bays and their first attack struck the Persians from the side, the perfect angle for ramming. What
followed was a melee which the Persians lost. Persian sailors managing to reach the shores of Salamis were slaughtered.
p ram and sink a trireme and remarked on her skill [[she sunk eight
g other Greeks].
] However,, she
Xerxes saw Artemisia’s ship
had turned on a cowardly Persian commander and sank him herself. The battle was a huge blow to the morale of the
Persians while saving the massed Greek population and what was left of their army from complete defeat. Many historians
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credit the victory with allowing Greece to reign in the region and pass on its virtues [and vices] to the west.
SECOND HISTORY LESSON …..
The warfare between Carthage and Rome was protracted and
debilitating for both. It does establish the start of Rome’s conquest
of the eastern Mediterranean and the rise of its Empire. Carthage
was located in what is today modern Tunisia and its character was
quite different than Rome’s. Originally a Phoenician trader’s settlement, it had a near perfect harbor, a mercantile culture and a
history way of settling disputes by diplomacy. In comparison,Rome
was in your face.
We will be concerned with an an event that started the First Punic
War and its influence on the conduct of additional Wars. For
background : by the time Rome had the Italian mainland organized,
Sicily had been divided half-wise,
half wise Syracuse in the east and
Carthage in the west.
The incident of note occurred when Mamertines, italian pirates,
seized the eastern-most city of Messana and asked for help from
Carthage and then Rome when Syracuse got nasty about it.
Carthage sent troops, Rome sent troops. The ability of Carthage to
re-supply their army from Africa by sea led Rome to build a
sizeable fleet and, in 260 bc, take on the Cartheginian fleet and
defeat them at sea off Mylae. The manner in which the Roman land
power was taken to sea was a slick application of technology
(herein read : secret weapon). Another Roman victory at the
Aegates Islands won the first Punic War in 241 bc. Carthage paid
in part by being forced from Sicily.
The victory at Mylae drove Carthage westward to begin carving out
a portion of Spain while the defeat in Sicily festered and foretold
even greater conflict with Rome. The Romans took their advantage
westward as well and encroached on Carthaginian territory by
annexing not only Sicily, but Sardinia and Corsica as well.
The next three slides recount the Mylae battle and give you a look
at the secret weapon ….
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the naval battle off Mylae, Sicily …. 260 bc
Roman Consul Caius Duilius was in command of the Roman fleet when the
Punic fleet began raiding the Mylae region on the northeastern coast of Sicily.
Closing with the Carthaginians this time brought into action the new weapon,
the Corvus,
Corvus a boarding ramp that would permit the transfer of roman troops,
troops
now actually marines, to attack an enemy vessel. Rome had found a way to
bring their expertise, land warfare, to a naval encounter and gain advantage
to make up for their relatively inferior seamanship.
seamanship Each side joined 120-130
triremes. The Carthaginians typically charged into battle and the first 30
triremes to make contact were pinned by the Corvus and lost to the Roman’s
subsequent boarding attack.
attack The remaining Punic ships escaped by employing their superior speed. Fifty were lost, captured or sunk and the
balance of sea power swung to the Romans.
This new device and Roman soldiers enabled the Roman Navy to sweep the
Straits of Sicily free of Carthaginian ships for the remainder of the Punic wars
thereby cutting off direct transfer of men and material between North Africa
and Italy through Sicily. Any major land attack on Italian soil such as Hannibal
Barca’s expedition would have to cross through Spain, move through
southern Europe and descend on Italy from the Alps.
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corvus : Rome’s secret weapon introduced during the First Punic War
In 260 bc, Admiral Gaius Duilius
won Rome’s first ever naval
victory when his ships defeated
a Carthaginian
C th i i
squadron
d
off fasf
ter, more maneuverable ships.
Aware of Roman inexperience at
sea Duilius invented and fitted
sea,
each ship with a Corvus, his
secret weapon; a raised gangplank that,, in effect,, converted
p
naval to land warfare by
bridging the gap between ships.
The Corvus’ large,
g , sharp
p spike
p
on its underside was dropped
on the deck of a Carthaginian
ship, locking them together.
Roman marines then boarded
and won the day, capturing 31
and sinking 14 enemy ships.
Trireme engine room
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Roman warships now had two means of
attacking an enemy vessel. The metal ram
on the
th prow that
th t allll triremes
ti
used
d was
augmented by a boarding ramp. The ram
requires a near perpendicular approach
while the gang-plank allowed a nearparallel approach that landed marines on
the enemy’s deck. The corvus was a huge
advantage
for
the
Roman
navy.
Disadvantage
sad a tage ? O
Once
ce a boa
boarding
d g pa
party
ty
was away, propulsion was reduced by half
and there was no maneuverability without
losing the boarding party.
ram
corvus
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Illustrations by Salvatore Mullini, naval architect
When Hannibal descended the Alps and entered northern Italy the Romans defended
Rome and let him pass by with his army, southward, further into southern Italy where the
army encamped. Effectively, Hannibal trapped himself because there was no chance for
any help from Carthage in Africa across the Straits of Sicily : this body of water and the
Roman navy’s blockade thus played a major role in Hannibal’s eventual defeat.
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Protagonists : The Second Punic War : 218-202 BC
Hannibal Barcas
Carthage
Scipio Africanus
Rome
In the second stanza,, Hannibal crossed the Alps
p and fought
g for y
years to a draw with the Roman Army
y in Italy.
y
There was no re-supply or fresh troops from Carthage primarily because of the blockade in the Straits of Sicily.
His brother, following Hannibal’s steps through Spain and the Alps attempted to break the stand-off and lost his
own army and life to the Romans for his troubles. Hannibal abandoned his army in Italy, returned to North Africa,
raised another army and was finally defeated by Scipio Africanus in the third Punic altercation; Carthage was
destroyed. Hannibal, one of the world’s most able generals, spent miserable years just one step ahead of
treachery and Roman-style justice until he committed suicide in Asia Minor in 182 bc.
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THIRD HISTORY LESSON ….
Protagonists : World War 2 : 1939 -1944
Bernard Montgomery
British 8th Army
Erwin Rommel
German Afrikakorps
War colleges of every nation have military history courses wherein ancient battles are studied for tactics
and results. Erwin cut class just before Xmas and went skiing in the Alps when the subject was :
Punic Wars.
---> bad luck <---
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In 1943, the Allied armies had forced the Afrikakorps eastward into Tunisia. Rommel had a huge
supply problem : gasoline for his Panzer tanks. The German army was close by : Sicily and Italy.
However the Allied fleet in the Strait of Sicily had blockaded North Africa. No supplies and no
retreat
t t to
t mainland
i l d Europe.
E
S
Sound
d a little
littl familiar
f ili ? Perhaps
P h
i a reverse sense ? Note
in
N t that
th t the
th
modern city of Tunis and its harbor is very close to some ancient ruins : Carthage.
More than 250,000 German soldiers were eventually interned near Tunis and kept out of the
closing stages of WW 2 in Europe because of the blockade.
blockade Were they needed ? The German
Armies in Russia were soon to be in full flight westward as the Russian Army advanced.
The lack of transportation for re-supply or evacuation of the German Army in North Africa did
shorten the European operations during WW 2. And just to set the record straight : Rommel, the
desert fox, was a brilliant tactician and was well-aware of the possibility that the Afrikakorp
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becoming trapped in North Africa. Fortunes of war, once again influenced by the ocean.
China Clipper Ship
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