The period covered in this book, is well known for its epic battles and grand campaigns of territorial conquest, but Hellenistic monarchies, Carthaginians and the rapacious Roman Republic were scarcely less active at sea. Huge resources were poured into maintaining fleets not only as symbols of prestige but as means of projecting real military power across the Mediterranean arena. Taking the period between Alexander the Great's conquests and the Battle of Actium, John Grainger analyses the developments in naval technology and tactics, the uses and limitations of sea power and the differing strategies of the various powers. He shows, for example, how the Rhodians and the Romans eschewed the ever-larger monster galleys favoured by most Hellenistic monarchs in favour of smaller vessels. This will be a fascinating study of a neglected aspect of ancient warfare.

John D Grainger, a former teacher, is a well-established historian with around 20 previous works across various periods including: The Battle of Yorktown, 1781: A Reassessment (Boydell); The Battle for Palestine 1917 (Boydell); The Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96-99 and the Reign of Nerva (Routledge); and most recently Alexander the Great Failure (Hambledon Continuum, 2006).