Why Did the Ancient Greeks Become a Seafaring People? E-Book

Jacques Pierre

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 64

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This small book is a look into the evolution of seafaring in Greece during Antiquity. We will look into the reasons that led to the Greek culture's emergence as an early maritime culture. In the book we will go through the basic components of the environment in the form of geography and oceanography along with available resources that created the foundation on which Greek maritime culture could evolve. It is suggested that the very conditions of the period around the end of the bronze age and through the archaic era necessitated the development of the Greeks as a seafaring culture. Furthermore, we will go into how Greek colonization of the wider Mediterranean was deeply interlinked with its maritime culture and how it was even one of the drivers of the development of more advanced seafaring. The position is held that the immigration pressure within Greece proper along with the isolationist and competitive relationship between the fragmented city states of ancient Greece led to the sea being the only option for outward expansion. Thus, the colonial expansion was deeply connected to the city state of origin, leading the colonies to often retain maritime trade connections to the mother city. This again led to the development of a trade network between historically connected city states that was the foundation upon which the large and advanced trading networks of classical antiquity would be based. The book also has a section covering the ships of ancient Greece and their development and evolution to more advanced and specialized forms in classical Antiquity. It also covers how these ships tied in with the maritime needs and cultural evolution of the era in which they were primarily used. Finally, it is discussed how all these elements came together to form the ancient Greek maritime culture and why it evolved to this in the first place. Thus, answering the question that is the title of this book. A certain degree of knowledge about ancient Greece or willingness to look up terms and names are expected in this book as it covers its theme narrowly.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

THE LANDSCAPE

THE SEASCAPE

THE WINDS

THE ENVIRONMENT

THE VESSELS AND SHIPS

THE GALLEY

THE TRIACONTER

THE PENTECONTER

THE BIREME

THE TRIREME

THE KERKOUROS

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

The question that is the title to this book might as well have been set to any seafaring people in the past. seafaring is a very costly and dangerous venture, especially when it has not been established already.

So why incur the risk of this endeavor? It all comes down to a question of need. When there is a need to be covered, there usually will be found a way to cover it.

Ancient Greece was not able to cover all its needs internally as it developed, so it needed to import them.

One might say that whether a need will be covered is dependent on whether it outweighs the costs, which is correct, but as the need of the Greeks of many of the ancient city states was for grain to feed themselves the need was rather pressing.

So, the ancient Greeks set sail to find extra sources of base foods.

Alongside this then came other needed materials, the bronze and the wood for the ships themselves.

When the goods that are needed are base foods then the risk quickly becomes less important. Stable foods are simply needed and exports to exchange for the produce will be found in one way or the other. The only alternative is population decline.

The Greek population did not decline but expanded, so both the seafaring skills and export goods to exchange for food imports were developed.

The Greeks had the good fortune of proximity to large and highly developed cultures that could be reached by sea.

Furthermore, they also had less developed areas with a grain surplus in close proximity. These areas which included the northern Black Sea region imported goods from more developed regions, which they traded for grain, fur and amber. The desired goods were often metalworks and ceramics.

The Greeks would thus also maintain profitable transit trade between developed cultures of Egypt and the Middle East and Europe.

This was a result of the fortunate geographical position of Greece being situated between these regions.

Especially during the Bronze age where metal production was very complex the raw material was transported far to the metal works and were only produced in a few places. This led to bronze being shipped far and wide to the areas that could not produce it, which often flowed through Greece.

Although the iron age led to more dispersed metal production more refined metal works were still exported from the developed cultures in the Middle East to Europe and Greece continued to maintain a favorable position in this trade due to its location in between. Thus, Greece had a favorable position to evolve a maritime culture.

But it was not only the favorable location of Greece that made the sea trade possible.

Greece itself also lent a number of factors to the Greeks, which made a strong maritime development more likely.

THE LANDSCAPE

It can actually be the land of a country itself that makes a turn to the sea natural.

Greece is a collection of islands and peninsulas with many fjords cutting in between. On land high mountains rise up and cut off connection between the short river valleys, where most Greeks settled. These river valleys and other lowlands are very disconnected making it difficult to transport goods between them. With ancient means of transportation, it is very limited how much can be transported over land. You are limited to what you or a beast of burden can carry or what can fit is a cart.

On water, however, even a simple raft can carry way more mass and volume than anything on land. Add to this that weight is much easier to push on water and it becomes clear how water connected and land divided.

Given the curly nature of Greece many areas could be reached when sailing and the islands could only be reached over water.

This made the sea a natural choice in Greece. Compared to land area it has a formidable length of coast and the densest populated areas are all by the sea.

Compare this to Egypt where all of the country is folded around the Nile and everything can be reached along the Nile. Although there is an access out by the river delta there is not much reason to reach out beyond the delta and mostly it was not necessary as both the Greeks and Phoenicians came to the Egyptians to trade rather than the Egyptians needing to go out.

This is very much due to the richness of Egypt. It had much to offer and so others came, while the Greeks needed to go out, because they did not have the same richness in their own land.

The shape of Greece also led to the political structure with independent city states. The mountains created barriers that made it difficult to create large centralized societies. So, each small region had internal self-governance.

This did not mean that they could not be part of larger unions, but the Greek states continually turned towards self-governance.

This was easy to do as the landscape provided a large degree of protection.

Athens became the Greek city state with the strongest dominance, which was achieved through its large navy that could control the seaways between the different areas of Greece. And a navy was needed to maintain power further away in Greece.

Athens did not maintain control by having troops in the other city states but by dominating the connection between them.

And this is an important note about a naval empire. It maintains control by controlling the seaways through which trade flows rather than directly controlling the land.

Greece was perfectly shaped for this kind of control rather than land control.

With each area of Greece forming its own small state they also each followed their own goals sailing out to best provide the needs of their state.

As there was competition between each state especially if there was close proximity, it was difficult to expand in the closest region, so each city state could send ships out to find easier markets than the closest area.

THE SEASCAPE

It is not only the landscape that is important for the development of maritime culture, but also the sea that surrounds this landscape.

And surround is the correct word, when it comes to Greece. All the islands and peninsulas make for a land completely surrounded by the sea.

Most other ancient civilizations were land and river based. With many areas very four from the sea.

This is not the case in Greece. The country consists of so many islands and peninsulas that everywhere is reasonably close to the sea. The only limiting factor being that the Aegean peninsula blocks access east west necessitating going south around this main peninsula, which in ancient times could be treacherous.

When talking about a seascape it is not just the water surface that is important but also the entire region beneath the surface. This includes the underwater landscape, which is often a continuation of the landscape above the water.

In Greece this means that the mountains and valleys above the waves are also found beneath the waves, with many mountain tops and ridges forming the islands of the Aegean Sea.

Many mountain tops also do not break the surface of the water forming reefs that are a danger to ships.