BOOK REVIEWS

Chester G. Starr. The Influence of Sea Power on Ancient History.

Oxford University Press, 1989. ix + 105 pp., 4 maps, notes, bibliogra-
phy, index. $12.95 Can. ISBN 0-19-505667-1 (pbk.)

Knowledge of the history of the states bordering the Mediterranean

dates from the time of pre-literate archaeological discoveries. Written
records exist from circa 3500 B.C. but until the end of the Roman
period they are fragmentary and some were set down decades, even
centuries, after the event from sources now lost. Documentation is a
problem faced by all scholars specializing in this period, whether they
are writing of land or sea. Professor Starr has made his career in this
field, and few are as well fitted as he to bring together what is known
of the maritime history of the Mediterranean powers up to the time of
the collapse of the Roman Empire.
He has done this in The Influence of Sea Power on Ancient
History. He introduces his book by summarizing a dissertation on sea
power during the Punic Wars, which appeared in the introduction to
Mahan's 1890 work The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-
1783. Starr warns against being misled by Mahan, and states his
purpose, which is to examine "the degree to which ships could be and
were utilized to support sea power." "My approach" he writes "will be
analytical rather than narrative." (p. 6)
After a brief review of archaeological evidence, which pertains
mostly to seaborne commerce rather than to sea power, Starr describes
the earliest westward expansions of the Greeks and Phoenicians.
Again, sea transport was a necessity, but sea power in the military
sense had not yet emerged. After 1000 B.c., the oared galley came into
use, and was used as troop transport and warship to the end of the
Roman period, and indeed long after. The time span covered by the
book includes the rise and fall of Athens, the first power to be heavily
dependent on the sea, the Hellenistic period following the death of
Alexander the Great, (323 B.c.), the Punic Wars, and the Roman

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248 International Journal of Maritime History

period to its end. During the second Punic War, (starting in 218 B.c.),
the rising Roman power built and relied on a large fleet of galleys.
This was the origin of sea power as a vital military force. Prior to the
Romans, warships had rarely played a decisive role in the fate of
nations. Starr concludes by following the course of the Roman Empire
to its collapse. Where the records allow, he emphasizes the role, if not
the influence, of sea power.
Setting aside, for the moment, Starr's purpose and stated
analytical approach, the book gives the maritime historian valuable
data on sea transport and sea warfare during the pre-Roman and
Roman eras. It describes developments in the design and construction
of galleys, their advantages and limitations, their successes and failures,
and their manning and fitting out. Where the subject cannot be
covered fully, the bibliography points the way. The bibliography is tied
to the text by notes assembled at the end of the book. The reader
would be saved some trouble if the notes were at the foot of the page,
or failing that were numbered serially throughout the book, instead of
for each chapter. Also, the four maps included in the book are
inadequate to follow the text, unless the reader has an intimate
knowledge of the geography of the ancient Mediterranean. In spite of
these drawbacks, the main value in the book lies in having all this
material accessible through one source.
That having been said, this review will evaluate The Influence
of Sea Power on Ancient History in relation to its purpose and
approach, quoted above. In any analytical work, a good deal of
narrative is required to set out the basis of the analysis. Starr has
allowed the narrative to take over, and his analyses are of limited
extent and inconclusive, granting that the available historical records
are fragmental. Where he does analyze or comment on some item, it
is usually to refute or support the writings of other modern historians.
This introduces rather too many quotations from books and articles of
the twentieth century, but there are also too many other quotations,
without comment, from modern sources. The difficulty with the book
is the author's struggle with the old dilemma of the historian-as-
reporter versus the historian-as-commentator. In view of his purpose,
surely the latter should have been his choice.
An exception to this criticism is Starr's account of the Second

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 Book Reviews 249

Punic War, the example quoted by Mahan in his 1890 work. This is not
the place to discuss Mahan's theories, beyond saying that Mahan
believed that sea power was the determinant for success in war, giving
as an example Hannibal's failure to take Rome during the Second
Punic War. Starr sets out his main arguments against Mahan's opinion
in one paragraph which seems to lie at the centre of his topic, judging
by his choice of title, his introduction, and his purpose. Starr argues
that Hannibal freely chose to use cavalry and elephants, which could
not be transported by sea, and that the war ended in stalemate rather
than defeat. The Carthaginians were finally defeated in the Third
Punic War, when sea power was not a decisive factor.
If Starr had left it at that, it would have been a point well made,
but in his epilogue, Starr introduces the ideas of a British geographer,
Halford Mackinder, who said that whoever controlled the heartland of
Europe controlled the world. Having introduced this idea, which, if it
was not preposterous in 1919 when it was written, certainly was by the
time Starr used the quotation, he explicitly leaves it to the reader to
choose between Mackinder and Mahan. The historian-as-reporter has
the last word.

John Kendrick Vancouver

Stephen Fisher (ed.). Innovation in Shipping and Trade. Exeter:

University of Exeter Press, 1989. vi + 177 pp., notes, illustrations.
£7.50. ISBN 0-85989-327-8.

This volume, number six in the general series of Exeter Maritime

Studies edited by Stephen Fisher, brings together eight papers
originally presented at the annual Dartington maritime history confer-
ence, of which Fisher is also the organiser. It is an eclectic collection,
which might be taken as evidence that, as the conference has grown
out of its West country roots to pursue national and international
themes, it has proved more difficult to maintain a coherent focus.
Alternatively, it can be read as a sample of the range of questions and
methodologies pursued within the "broad church" of maritime history.
Either way, it presents the reviewer with the (not uncommon) problem

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