The Athenian political leader Pericles in the 5th century B.C. stated “Great State of the Sea” (Thucydides “History of the Peloponnesian War”). In fact, Pericles very aptly formulated in one sentence the strategic Doctrine of Themistocles. On this Doctrine Pericles built the strategy of Athens to face Sparta.
According to this Doctrine, Athens would dominate the sea and be fortified behind its Long Walls, with its supply secured through the port of Piraeus. To achieve this strategy, the Athens fleet will consist of more than 300 triremes, without a deck (without a fence) to be lighter and faster and at the same time manned with small groups of marines 10-14 men, while the other city-states in their own triremes put 40 marines and with the best trained crews in Greece to be from Athens, who could perform difficult maneuvers and tactics to prevail through embolism and not with gun battles.
These triremes had a draft of only one meter and were suitable for speed and flexibility, but unsuitable for open seas and bad weather. There was no supply area in these triremes and the crews went ashore every night for their basic food. The Athenian trireme was clearly designed for operations on the map of the Aegean Archipelago where wherever you were in the Aegean Archipelago you had visual contact with the land.
On land, the Athenians set up cavalry and scattered fortresses in Attica to charge and harass the invaders from the Peloponnese when they were looking for supplies in the countryside. The fleet of Athens with battering blows hit the unguarded coasts of the Peloponnese and left before the appearance of an enemy army. The doctrine of the Athenian navy and army was to appear and strike lightning where the enemy did not expect it.
Pericles’s strategy was excellent, perfectly adapted to the map of the Aegean Archipelago and the Athenian seamanship of Themistocles. He invested even more in the advantage of Athens – the sea. He capitalized on the know-how in triremes to the maximum, while at the same time he completely annulled the know-how of the opponent in the hoplite battles by formation.
Athens was first defeated by the Great Famine and then by Sparta. Pericles is the founder of the Doctrine of the “Great State of the Sea”.
