Dominion of the sea
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
command of the sea · dominion of the sea · dominium maris · empire of the sea
in the texts
The Freedom of the Seas (Mare Liberum)
The claimed dominion over the sea, contrasted with the divided dominion of lands and denied as ever having existed.
tamen diversum fuit et est in dominio maris, quod ab origine Mundi, ad hodiernum usque diem est, fuitque semper in communi, nulla ex parte immutatum, ut est notum’.
On the Peace
Maritime empire, especially Athens’s desired naval supremacy, criticized as corrupting and dangerous.
on the contrary, while you consider the power of a despot to be harsh and harmful not only to others but to those who hold it, you look upon the empire of the sea as the greatest good in the world, when in fact it differs neither in what it does nor in what it suffers from one-man-rule.
For because of their supremacy on land and of their stern discipline and of the self control which was cultivated under it, they readily obtained command of the sea, whereas because of the arrogance which was bred in them by that power they speedily lost the supremacy both on land and sea.
So that anyone would be much more in accord with the truth if he should assert that they first became subject to the dominion of their present ills at the moment when they attempted to seize the dominion of the sea, since they were seeking to acquire a power which was in no wise like that which they had before possessed.