Persia at times had the complete command of the Mediterranean Sea, and bore undisputed sway in the Levant during almost the whole period of her existence as an empire.
The war-ship preferred by the best naval powers during the whole period of the Persian rule was the trireme, or decked galley impelled by rowers sitting in three tiers, or banks, one above another.

This vessel, the invention of the Corinthians, had been generally adopted by the nations bordering on the Mediterranean in the interval between B.C.700 and B.C.
525, when by the reduction of Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Egypt, the Persians obtained the command of the sea.

Notwithstanding the invention of quadriremes by the Carthaginians before B.C.400, and of quinqueremes by Dionysius the Elder soon after, the trireme stood its ground, and from first to last the Persian fleets were mainly composed of this class of vessels.
The trireme was a vessel of a considerable size, and was capable of accommodating two hundred and thirty persons.

Of these, two hundred constituted the crew, while the remaining thirty were men-at-arms, corresponding to our own "marines." By far the greater number of the crew consisted of the rowers, who probably formed at least nine-tenths of the whole, or one hundred and eighty out of the two hundred.

The rowers sat, not on benches running right across the vessel, but on small seats attached to its side.