THE OCEAN AS A BATTLE-FIELD 263 



the most commanding position in the whole Middle 

 Sea, for the prosecution of the peculiar industry which 

 the Phoenicians had made their own, viz. oversea 

 traffic. But they speedily supplemented this peaceful 

 business by one entirely warlike, for they established 

 a fleet of purely war-vessels, in which they sailed 

 from shore to shore slaying or making slaves of such 

 as opposed them, and planting colonies of their own 

 for the purpose of exploiting such countries, but 

 never penetrating far inland for some centuries. Their 

 own hinterland they seem to have neglected altogether. 

 Still, even in their wars they were essentially mer- 

 cantile, and consequently we find them lending a 

 navy to Xerxes for the subjugation of Greece, which 

 has been computed at two thousand war-vessels and 

 three thousand transports, so mighty had their power 

 become. By reason of this they had dominated the 

 whole Mediterranean; but in this, the first naval 

 battle of which we have any authentic record, they 

 were so signally defeated by the Greeks, who, with 

 hardly any vessels, managed to get on board the ships 

 which were besieging Himera, and were probably 

 crowded on the beach, that they lost, so it is said, a 

 hundred and fifty thousand men and most of their 

 vessels. It is probably a misnomer to call it a naval 

 engagement at all ; it was, more properly speaking, 

 a land battle in which the combatants accidentally 

 fought on board stranded ships. However, owing to 

 the wealth and skill she had at her command, Carthage 

 soon built another vast fleet, and pursued her career of 

 rapine and destruction as before, thus succeeding in 

 regaining her pride of place as mistress and despot of 

 the seas. But in the course of the centuries, for men 



