Gelon of Syracuse, besides a large army (_Heer_), had '_eine_ _bedeutende_Seemacht_,' meaning a considerable navy. The term, in the first of the two senses, is old in German, as appears from the following, extracted from Zedler's 'Grosses Universal Lexicon,' vol. xxxvi:[8] 'Seemachten, Seepotenzen, Latin. _summae_ _potestates_mari_potentes_.' 'Seepotenzen' is probably quite obsolete now. It is interesting as showing that German no more abhors Teuto-Latin or Teuto-Romance compounds than English. We may note, as a proof of the indeterminate meaning of the expression until his own epoch-making works had appeared, that Mahan himself in his earliest book used it in both senses. He says,[9] 'The Spanish Netherlands ceased to be a sea-power.' He alludes[10] to the development of a nation as a 'sea-power,' and[11] to the inferiority of the Confederate States 'as a sea-power.' Also,[12] he remarks of the war of the Spanish Succession that 'before it England was one of the sea-powers, after it she was _the_ sea-power without any second.' In all these passages, as appears from the use of the indefinite article, what is meant is a naval power, or a state in possession of a strong navy. The other meaning of the term forms the general subject of his writings above enumerated. In his earlier works Mahan writes 'sea power' as two words; but in a published letter of the 19th February 1897, he joins them with a hyphen, and defends this formation of the term and the sense in which he uses it. We may regard him as the virtual inventor of the term in its more diffused meaning, for--even if it had been employed by earlier writers in that sense--it is he beyond all question who has given it general currency. He has made it impossible for anyone to treat of sea-power without frequent reference to his writings and conclusions. [Footnote 2: _Hist._of_Greece_, v. p. 67, published in 1849, but with preface dated 1848.] [Footnote 3: _Expansion_of_England_, p. 89.] [Footnote 4: _Influence_of_Sea-power_on_History_, published 1890; _Influence_of_Sea-power_on_the_French_Revolution_and_Empire_, 2 vols. 1892; _Nelson:_the_Embodiment_of_the_Sea-power_of_Great_ _Britain_, 2 vols. 1897.] [Footnote 5: _Griechische_Geschichte_. Berlin, 1889.] [Footnote 6: _Ibid_. ii. p. 37.] [Footnote 7: _Ibid_. ii. p. 91.] [Footnote 8: Leipzig und Halle, 1743.] [Footnote 9: _Influence_of_Sea-power_on_History_, p. 35.] [Footnote 10: _Ibid_. p. 42.] [Footnote 11: _Ibid_. p. 43.] [Footnote 12: _Ibid_. p. 225.]