ABSTRACT
The history of Achaemenian navigation can be compressed into a single sentence: the Achaemenians were not drawn to the sea but driven to it. For the Persians, who had migrated overland to Fars, were an agricultural or pastoral people, unacquainted with maritime affairs. Realizing their own limitations, the early Achaemenians behaved gently with the seafaring people they had subdued. The Persians did not love the sea, but they loved sea-power and tried “to create a direct communication between the seclusion of Persis and the commerce of the world.” Consequently, the Nile canal was constructed and the construction of this canal was supplemented by an exploration of the Indian Ocean. Only by a slow process, did Achaemenian sea-power become Achaemenian in the Mediterranean Sea. The attempt of Darius to control the nomads of Scythia led to a resumption of naval activity in the Mediterranean Sea.
