Sources for the lecture:

1) The Archaic View: Homer    The Odyssey, Book 6
“but when we are about to enter the city, around which runs a lofty wall, - a fair harbour lies on either side of the city and the entrance is narrow, and curved ships are drawn up along the road, for they all have stations for their ships, each man one for himself. There, too, is their place of assembly about the fair temple of Poseidon, fitted with huge stones set deep in the earth. Here the men are busied with the tackle of their black ships, with cables and sails, and here they shape their thin oar-blades”. (trans. A.T. Murray 1919).

2) The Biblical View: Ezekiel on Tyre    Ezekiel 26:3-4, 27
“and say unto Tyre, that dwelleth at the entry of the sea, that is the merchant of the peoples until many isles: Thou saith the Lord God: Thou, O Tyre, hast said: I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the heart of the seas, Thy builders have perfected thy beauty…The ships of Tarshish brought thee tribute for thy merchandise; So wast thou replenished, and made very heavy in the heart of the seas. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the seas”. (Oxford Annotated Bible, 1965, New York)

3) Plato on Piraeus and Athens    Laws 704-705
It is indeed nearer to the sea than it should be, the more so since you declare it has good harbors, but this has to be made the best of. For although a land’s proximity to the sea affords daily pleasure, the sea really is a briny and bitter neighbor. It infects a place with commerce and the money shifty and untrustworthy dispositions in souls...” (trans. T. Pangle 1980 New York)

4) Aristotle on Athens    Politics Book 7.5
As to the position of the city, if we could have what we wish, it should be well situated in regard both of the sea and land….It is argued that the introduction of strangers brought up under other laws, and the increase of population, will be adverse to good order…and if a state ought not to desire profit of this kind it ought not to have such and emporium. Nowadays we often see in countries and cities dockyards and harbours very conveniently placed outside the city, but not too far off; and they are kept in dependence by walls and similar fortifications.” (trans. B. Jowett 1943 New York).

5). Vitruvius on Alexandria    De Architectura II: 3-4
For as a newborn babe cannot be nourished without the nurse’s milk, nor conducted to the approaches that lead to growth in life, so a city cannot thrive without fields and the fruits thereof pouring into its walls, nor have a large population without plenty of food, nor maintain its population without a supply of it… From that time, Dinocrates did not leave the king, but followed him into Egypt. There Alexander, observing a harbour rendered safe by nature, an excellent centre for trade, cornfields throughout all Egypt, and the great usefulness of the mighty river Nile, ordered him to build the city of Alexandria, named after the king”. (trans. M.H. Morgan, London 1914)

6) Cicero on Ostia and Rome    De Republica II:3-4
“The location of the city…he did not move to the coast. He realized that coastal positions are not the most advantageous for cities founded in the expectation of long life and power. In the first place, maritime cities are exposed to dangers that are both multiple and unexpected…could anything display divine ability more than Romulus’ embrace of the benefits of the coast while avoiding its vices by placing his city on the bank of a large river that flows into the sea..?” (trans. J. Zetzel 1999, New York)

7) Flavius Josephus on Herod and Caesarea    Antiquities of the Jews XV:331
“This city is situated in Phoenicia, in the passage by sea to Egypt, between Joppa and Dora, which are lesser maritime cities, and not fit for havens, on account of the impetuous south winds that beat upon them, which rolling the sands that come from the sea against the shores, do not admit of ships lying in their station; but the merchants are generally there forced to ride at their anchors in the sea itself. So Herod endeavored to rectify this inconvenience, and laid out such a compass towards the land as might be sufficient for a haven, wherein the great ships might lie in safety..” (trans. W. Whiston)

8) Flavius Josephus on the connection of the Land of Israel to the Sea    Against Apion I:60
“As for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a maritime country, nor do we delight in merchandise, nor in such a mixture with other men as arises from it; but the cities we dwell in are remote from the sea. …for it was so in general that all maritime nations, and those that inhabited near the eastern or western seas, became most known to those that were desirous to be writers; but such as had their habitations further from the sea were for the most part unknown…” (trans. W. Whiston)