THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE, J. Baikie, 1910. PHoeNICIA, Story of the Nations Series, George Rawlinson, 1895. THE SAILING SHIP, E. Keble Chatterton, 1909. SHIPS AND THEIR WAYS OF OTHER DAYS, E. Keble Chatterton, 1913. ANCIENT SHIPS, Cecil Torr, 1894. ARCHEOLOGIE NAVALE, Auguste Jal, 1840. THE PREHISTORIC NAVAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE NORTH OF EUROPE, G. H. Buhmer, in Report of the U. S. National Museum, 1893. This article contains a complete bibliography on the subject of ancient ships. SEA POWER AND FREEDOM (chap. 2), Gerard Fiennes, 1918. CHAPTER II ATHENS AS A SEA POWER 1. THE PERSIAN WAR In determining to crush the independence of the Greek cities of the west, Darius was influenced not only by the desire to destroy a dangerous rival on the sea and an obstacle to further advances by the Persian empire, but also to tighten his hold on the Greek colonies of Asia Minor. Helped by the Phoenician fleet and the treachery of the Lesbians and Samians, he had succeeded in putting down a formidable rebellion in 500 B.C. In this rebellion the Asiatic Greeks had received help from their Athenian brethren on the other side of the AEgean; indeed just so long as Greek independence flourished anywhere there would always be the threat of revolt in the Greek colonies of Persia. Darius perceived rightly that the prestige and the future power of his empire depended on his conquering Greece. In 492 he dispatched Mardonius with an army of invasion to subdue Attica and Eretria, and at the same time sent forth a great fleet to conquer the independent island communities of the AEgean. Mardonius succeeded in overcoming the tribes of Thrace and Macedonia, but the fleet, after taking the island of Thasus, was struck by a storm that wrecked three hundred triremes with a loss of 20,000 lives. As the broken remnants of the fleet returned to Asia, leaving Mardonius with no sea communications, and harassed by increasing opposition, he was compelled to retreat also. In 490 Darius sent out another army under Mardonius, this time embarking it on a fleet of 600 triremes which succeeded in arriving safely at the coast of Attica in the bay of Marathon. While the army was disembarking it was attacked by Miltiades and utterly defeated. The second expedition, therefore, came to nothing. But Marathon can hardly be called a decisive battle because it merely postponed the invasion; it affected in no way the communications of the Persians and it did not weaken seriously their military resources.