The long 19th century In the 19th century, the Mediterranean was at the fore center of international commerce. The ships traveled from the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea to the West carrying grain, wool, cotton, linseed and animal fat, and returned from there laden with coal and industrial products. The Black Sea was the […]

Piracy From the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century AD, the “White Sea”, as the Aegean was named by the Ottomans, was a “turbulent archipelago”. Muslim and Christian pirates and corsairs were active in its waters. The latter were in the service of combative powers interested in damaging the enemy’s shipping and trade […]

During the years of Early Byzantine Period (4th – 7th century AD), when the Empire was dominant in the Mediterranean, the Aegean islands formed part of the chain which consisted of Crete, Cyprus, Sicily, Malta and Sardinia and secured unity in its naval communications. The theme of the Aegean, as an administrative region of the […]

The Hellenistic Age spreads from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. to 30 B.C. the year of the death of the last of the Ptolemies, Cleopatra VII, (some historians however consider that the Hellenistic World in the East continues up to the third, even the fourth century A.D. until to the end […]

The Athenian Trireme (Triere) and the Athenian hegemony When we think of polyremes, warships with more than a bank of oars, the triere, the most famous of these vessels, comes to our mind. The superiority of this Athenian ship — that was developed in Corinth, with three banks of oars — is confirmed in more […]

The Polyremes of the Geometric period From the Geometric, and the archaic periods some superb examples of vase painting with representations of beautiful sleek ships have been preserved. This is the period of the development of the longship which is pictures with a mpaddingultitude of oars and sometime with more than a bank of oarsmen. […]