Preface: Wars at Sea This book, The Blood-­Drenched Sea, contains the naval ­battles and wars fought in the ancient Mediterranean from the first scenes on the walls of an Egyp- tian mortuary ­ temple depicting Egypt’s defeat of a massive seaborne invasion in 1191 BCE to the invasion and destruction of the Roman Empire. Herein are the ships, crews, and leaders who determined the course of ancient his- tory, along with the wars and ­battles, told through artifacts, extant literary and visual sources, and modern reconstructions—­the Minoan sea domain the legendary sack of Troy the wandering of Odysseus and the expansion of Greeks throughout the Mediterranean the ­ great Athenian victory over the Per- sians at Salamis the Athenian sea empire, ruined by one superstitious man and the three wars between Rome and Carthage that cost the Romans hun- dreds of thousands of lives and vast wealth. The Romans brought the ­whole of the Mediterranean ­under their control and then fought each other in destructive civil wars ­ until Octavian settled the question of the new empire by winning the sea ­battle at Actium. The book concludes with the fall of the Roman Empire followed by a brief sketch of the subsequent history of oared warships and the tactic of ramming. This one-­ volume history puts seemingly isolated events in a larger context: for instance, the first wave of Greek colonization is usually treated as a separate subject, a peaceful settlement of unoccupied territory but seen in context, it becomes a part of the violent movement of the so-­called “sea ­ peoples” who ravaged and resettled the Eastern Mediterranean. The purpose of this account is to pre­sent the reader with the events as expe- rienced—as far as pos­si­ble—by the participants. I hope my book ­ will reach every­one interested in the ancient world, naval history, war, and the sea. It is a fascinating story. All translations of Greek and Latin passages are my own.
Previous Page Next Page