HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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dence whatever of two naval armaments having ever entered into contest witheach other, previous to the sera just mentioned. Minos, king of Crete, isindeed, with good foundation, said to have reigned master of the sea nearlysix hundred years before that time ; yet there is no proof whatever, of hishaving met with any opposition to his projects. The pirates, or plunderers *,whom he destroyed, or put to flight, either fled at the first intelligence ofhis approach, or surrendered without opposition, being awed into submissionby the terror of his power. The countries which he is reported to have sub-dued having no naval force to withstand him, surrendered to the might of thatwhich was sent against them, or his fleet acting merely as transports, the sol-diers whom it conveyed, effected the conquest without any additional aid.The allied Grecian fleet, which proceeded to the attack of Troy, accordingto chronologists about the year of the world 2767, seventy years subsequentto the reign of Minos, is to be considered as having acted on the same prin-ciple ; and the different expeditions of Sesostris, Hercules, with their differentcotemporaries, or rivals in fame, were uniformly successful, because uniformlyunopposed.

The situation of Corinth was peculiarly well adapted to the acquisition andmaintenance of naval empire to a very considerable extent. Built on theisthmus, which connects Peloponnesus, now the Morea, with Attica and Boeotia,or, in other words, with the continent of Europe, the Sinus Corinthiacus, andSaronicus, now called the gulph of Engia and Lepanto, afforded them aneasy passage into the two opposite quarters of the ocean, east or west. Thepeninsula of the modern Morea was completely at its mercy, all intercoursewith Greece, and indeed with any other country in the world, being absolutelyrestrained, if Corinth thought proper imperatively to forbid it. Athens andother states, placed in what might be called the continent, were scarcely in asuperior situation, till the continued application of a series of years enabledthem, in some degree, to rival the power of their tyrant.

The seed, however, of naval contest being once sown, the plant began tothrive and encrease with a rapidity almost incredible. The augmentation ofthe size of vessels, and the improvements progressively made in the mecha-nical construction of them, naturally led both to the extension of commerce,and of warfare. The Ionians soon became, if not rivals, at least competitors :they braved, they held in contempt, the threats of the most powerful monarchs.

* See page 32, et seq.

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