Empire of the sea
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
empire of the sea · empire · hegemony · imperial power · supremacy by sea · this power
in the texts
On the Peace
Athenian naval dominion over other Greeks, condemned as unjust, unstable, and harmful.
For I was on the point of saying that you could best learn that it is not to your advantage to obtain the empire of the sea if you should consider what was the condition of Athens before she acquired this power and what after she obtained it.
And yet they were involved in more and greater disasters in the time of the empire than have ever befallen Athens in all the rest of her history.
For I, for my part, consider that we shall manage our city to better advantage and be ourselves better men and go forward in all our undertakings if we stop setting our hearts on the empire of the sea.
Panathenaicus
Naval supremacy over Greek states, treated as a power used imperfectly by both cities but more moderately by Athens.
Now after these events it came about that each of these cities in turn gained the empire of the sea —a power such that whichever state possesses it holds in subjection most of the states of Hellas.
More than that, our city recovered her power in less years than it took to overthrow it, while the Spartans after their defeat at Leuctra have not been able even in a period many times as long to regain the position from which they fell, but are even now no better off than they were then.
Now both Athens and Lacedaemon incurred the hatred of their subjects and were plunged into war and confusion, but in these circumstances it will be found that our city, although attacked by all the Hellenes and by the barbarians as well, was able to hold out against them for ten years, while the Lacedaemonians, though still the leading power by land, after waging war against the Thebans alone and …