But Knossos,
far richer, far more splendid, than either Tiryns or Mycenae, lies
virtually unguarded, its spacious courts and pillared porticoes
open on every side. Plainly, the Minoan Kings lived in a land where
peace was the rule, and where no enemy was expected to break rudely
in upon their luxurious calm. And the reason for their confidence
and security is not far to seek, if we remember the statements
of Thucydides and Herodotus.
[Illustration X: PART OF DOLPHIN FRESCO
A GREAT JAR, KNOSSOS]
'The first King known to us by tradition as having established
a navy is Minos,' says the great Athenian historian. The Minoan
Empire, like our own, rested upon sea-power; its great Kings were
the Sea-Kings of the ancient world--the first Sea-Kings known to
history, over-lords of the AEgean long before 'the grave Tyrian
trader' had learned 'the way of a ship in the sea,' or the land-loving
Egyptian had ventured his timid squadrons at the command of a great
Queen so far as Punt. And so the fortifications of their capital
and palace were not of the huge gypsum blocks which they knew so
well how to handle and work. They were the wooden walls, the long
low black galleys with the vermilion bows, and the square sail,
and the creeping rows of oars, that lay moored or beached at the
mouth of the Kairatos River, or cruised around the island coast,
keeping the Minoan peace of the AEgean.
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