Marathon to Phaleron

1975 ◽  
Vol 95 ◽  
pp. 169-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Trevor Hodge

In his reconstruction of the campaign of Marathon, Prof. N. G. L. Hammond postulates that the Persian fleet accomplished its hurried voyage from Marathon to Phaleron after the battle in a time of 9 hours, and in theory could perhaps have done it in 8 (JHS 1968, p. 43). This very fast time (9 hours for 58 sea miles = 6½ knots; 8 hours = 7), necessary if the fleet is to arrive in Phaleron in time to confront the Athenians on the same day as the battle (sic Plut. Aristeides, v, 5; but cf. Mor. 350 E), is justified by two arguments: (1) the wind blowing at the time was a north-easter, providing ‘the fastest conditions for sailing’; and (2), the Phoenician galleys in the Persian fleet were faster than Greeks, making figures based on Greek performance irrelevant.(1) A strong north-easter is indeed very probable. During the summer and until mid-September (i.e., there is a strong probability that Marathon is covered, whichever date one prefers for it) the etesian winds (nowadays known as the meltemi) are blowing in the Aegean. These winds are of great strength and regularity, blowing only by daytime, and more or less from the North (Dem. iv 31; viii 14; Arist. Meteo, ii 361–2; A. R. Burn, Persia and the Greeks, p. 388). But the conditions they offer are not favourable for fast sailing from Marathon to Phaleron. Off the east coast of Attica a very choppy sea builds up. The seas come rolling down from the North, and in the funnel-shaped Thorikos Channel, between Makronissi and the mainland, build up to some really heavy weather between Lavrion and Sounion, particularly in the afternoon. This would delay the war galleys. Little is known about Phoenician war vessels, but they appear to have been triremes of some sort—light craft that can make good speed only in calm water. Far from a ‘following sea’ being favourable, a trireme would not give of its best in a sea of any kind, coming from any direction.

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cogswell

AbstractHistorians have not paid close attention to the activities of freebooters operating out of Dunkirk in the late 1620s. This essay corrects that omission by first studying the threat from Dunkirk to England's east coast and then addressing how the central government, counties, and coastal towns responded. A surprisingly rich vein of manuscript material from Great Yarmouth and particularly from the Suffolk fishing community of Aldeburgh informs this case study of the impact of this conflict around the North Sea.


1916 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 435-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Tyrrell

The new material on which this paper is based has lately been received through Mr. D. Ferguson, who recently investigated the geology of the island, and collected the rocks described in an earlier paper. It consists of twenty-seven rock specimens from the south-eastern end of the island, between Cape Disappointment and Cooper Island, and nine specimens from Gold Harbour on the north-east coast between Cooper Island and Royal Bay. All these were collected by the staff of the South Georgia Co., Ltd., under the instructions of Mr. Th. E. Salvesen, managing director, of Leith.


The Festivus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
John Daughenbaugh

For researchers, isolated regions at the periphery of species’ distributions hold a peculiar fascination. The causes of their remoteness vary based on: distance (e.g. the Tropical Eastern Pacific), distance and countervailing currents (e.g. the Marquesas), location in a present day gyre (e.g. the Pitcairn Group) or the absence of present day means of veliger transport (e.g. the Vema Seamount). (Daughenbaugh & Beals 2013; Daughenbaugh 2015a & b, 2017). The northern New Zealand Region from the Kermadec Islands (Kermadecs) to the coastal and shelf areas in the northernmost part of New Zealand’s North Island (Northland), including the Poor Knights Islands (PKI), constitute the distributional boundaries for a number of Cypraeidae species. The boundaries are the result of the absence of coastal shelves along the east side of the Kermadec Ridge (Ridge) and precipitous drops to abyssal depths along Northland’s east coast continental shelf. Tropical waters, with their potential to transport Cypraeidae larvae, flow eastward from southern Queensland, Australia, entrained in the Tasman Front which terminates when reaching North Cape, the northernmost tip of Northland. There, the North Cape Eddy captures most of this flow while the remainder, the East Auckland Current (EAUC), flows intermittently southward along the eastern coastal, shelf and offshore areas of Northland into waters incapable of supporting Cypraeidae populations.


Author(s):  
A.G. Elliott ◽  
T.W. Lonsdale

IN two papers read by officers of the Department of Agriculture at the 1936 conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association, the growing of lucernc as a forage crop in districts of relatively high rainfall was dealt with. The area covered by the papers included the Manawatu and west coast from Paraparaumu to the Patea River(I) and Taranaki(n). During the subsequent discussion on these and other papers the present position and general trend in regard to lucernegrowing in the Wairarapa, Eiawke's Eay, and Poverty Bay districts were also touched on. It is the intention here. to review briefly some of the more important points in regard to the cultivation of lucerne in the southern portion of the North Island as discussed at the conference.


2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Beveridge ◽  
Claude Chauvet ◽  
Jean-Lou Justine

AbstractPseudogilquinia pillersi (Southwell, 1929), a poorly known species of trypanorhynch, is redescribed from plerocerci collected from Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton, 1922), Epinephelus malabaricus (Bloch et Schneider, 1801) (Serranidae) and Plectropomus laevis (Lacépède, 1801) (Serranidae) off New Caledonia. These were compared with specimens from Lethrinus atkinsoni Seale, 1910 and Lethrinus miniatus (Forster, 1801) (Lethrinidae) off the north-east coast of Australia as well as syntypes from Protonibea diacantha (Lacépède, 1802) from Sri Lanka. Although size differences were found in parts of the scolex as well as in the sizes of the tentacular hooks, the hook arrangements were identical in all specimens. The differences observed were attributed provisionally to intra-specific variation across a wide geographic and host range.


The subduction zone under the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand comprises, from east to west, a frontal wedge, a fore-arc basin, uplifted basement forming the arc and the Central Volcanic Region. Reconstructions of the plate boundary zone for the Cainozoic from seafloor spreading data require the fore-arc basin to have rotated through 60° in the last 20 Ma which is confirmed by palaeomagnetic declination studies. Estimates of shear strain from geodetic data show that the fore-arc basin is rotating today and that it is under extension in the direction normal to the trend of the plate boundary zone. The extension is apparently achieved by normal faulting. Estimates of the amount of sediments accreted to the subduction zone exceed the volume of the frontal wedge: underplating by the excess sediments is suggested to be the cause of late Quaternary uplift of the fore-arc basin. Low-temperature—high-pressure metamorphism may therefore be occurring at depth on the east coast and high-temperature—low-pressure metamorphism is probable in the Central Volcanic Region. The North Island of New Zealand is therefore a likely setting for a paired metamorphic belt in the making.


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