Welcome, crew. This is a temporarily unlocked member episode, open to everyone for the remainder of March since I was unable to record a regular episode this month. It will revert to subscriber-only access on April 1. Today we depart slightly from a focused look at ships, and branch out to consider mythology that has some loose ties to ships. The Greek mythological king and hero Theseus of course slew the Minotaur, but today we explore the ties of that story, and others, to Athenian naval ambition. Later politicians like Pisistratus and Cimon used the myths of Theseus to help promote the sprea ..read more

Today we continue following the evolution and exploits of the Delian League. In the 450s BCE, they become embroiled in two theaters of conflict. The first saw them begin to more squarely meet Sparta and many other allied cities of the Peloponnesian League in what is called the First Peloponnesian War. At the same time, Athens and the Delian League answered the call of a rebel leader in Egypt and there the League got tangled up fighting Persia yet again. A siege at the White Castle (no, not that one) ensues, and in the end the Delian League suffers some pretty heavy losses in a foreign land. S ..read more

Now that we have witnessed the birth of the Delian League, in today's episode we trace their exploits in the 470s BCE. The league does a good job landing more blows against the Persian Empire, but at the same time they begin to more strongly resemble an empire, and some league members are not amused. A new military leader named Cimon emerges to lead the Delian League. He suppresses some piracy, and his trireme fleet is overhauled to more better suit their campaign objectives. We consider all of this, and more, as the Delian League's navy expands and then defeats a Persian fleet at the Battle o ..read more

Today we open a chapter onto the naval Battle of Artemisium. We begin by considering a prophecy which illustrates the plight that Greece found herself in as the Persian army and navy entered Europe. We discuss the state of preparation in each relative camp as they made their respective preparations for the battle to come. We then discuss the regions in and around Artemisium and the island of Euboea, where the first naval battle of the war would take place. We consider the strategic advantages inherent in certain sites in the region, the theories about how large each navy would have been at thi ..read more

In today's episode we take a look at the final moves that both Greece and Persia made on the eve of their war. Themistocles and Aristides take center stage as they maneuver through the political scene of Athens, but with the success of the Themistoclean naval policy, we discuss how the Greeks may have rapidly built up their navy. We consider the Greek congress of city-states, their relative lack of support, and the final measures they took to try and recruit allies. We also consider a canal project and pontoon bridges that Xerxes had built to aid his army and navy as they both marched and sail ..read more

A substantial portion of the Persian fleet was wrecked in a storm in 492 BCE, but after Darius ordered it to be rebuilt, they set sail for Greece in the summer of 490. Today's episode examines the state of the Persian navy at this point, after which we discuss the fleet's route to Eritrea and Marathon, the site of one of Greece's most famous military victories. It was a land battle though, so after a brief look at some naval elements connected to it, we paint a picture of Athens after Marathon, where political leaders like Themistocles had to fear the newly popular use of ostracism. We conclud ..read more

In today's episode the curtain rises on a young man named Themistocles. He's always recognized for the role that he played at Salamis and in the Greek navy's stand against Persia, but today we go back to the earliest we know about his life. We ended last episode in 493 BCE when the Ionian Revolt was effectively ended at Lade, but in that same year Themistocles was made eponymous archon of Athens. Today we look at the early stages of the naval reforms he tried to institute in Athens, with a particular focus on the Athenian port of Phaleron. It was a weak port despite being the only port Athens ..read more

Welcome to our third annual Halloween special here at the Maritime History Podcast. Rather than choose a grim, frightening, or eery tale, this year I felt that a more lighthearted fare was in order. This story was written by an Englishman named Richard Middleton. It tells of a quiet countryside village named Fairfield where the townsfolk are as comfortable with the ghosts that populate the village as they are with their neighbors. After a storm one night, a villager finds a ghostly ship at anchor in his turnip garden, and the story continues to elaborate the rather humorous consequences of hav ..read more

If Episode 031 covered the heady, opening stages of the Ionian Revolt, then today's episode covers the denouement and rather anticlimactic conclusion of the revolt. At the start of the episode we follow Aristagoras as he goes on a recruiting trip to Sparta and Athens, using a world map to try and sway the Spartan king into joining the revolt. Athenian ships join the revolt, but after some early success in Ionia, Athens quickly withdraws. She has gained the attention of the Persian king by briefly aiding Ionia, but before Darius repays Athenian meddling he resubjugates Ionia and the surrou ..read more

In today's episode we begin our look at the events that directly contributed to the beginnings of the Greco-Persian War. After a brief summation of the events that brought the early Persian Empire into contact with the Ionian Greeks, we take a look at the evidence and theories about what the naval situation was like in the Aegean during the late 6th century BCE. We then consider how and why Persia went about building up its navy, including how Ionian Greek cities fit into the Persian system once they were subjugated. We then meet a tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, who's ambition and cunning spu ..read more