The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy
After the excitements of last night - the publication party at the historic Century Club, the late night drinks at the Algonquin, the toasts, tributes, thanks, and reflections on a road that stretches back over the last 40 years - today was very peaceful. But it still had its share of moments linked to the [...]
Tonight was one of the great occasions of my life — the event being a publication party for LORDS OF THE SEA given by dear friends at the Century Club in New York near the corner of 43rd Street and 5th Avenue. The party was held in a beautiful room lined with 19th century oil [...]
A Monday in May, in the heart of New York City, on a cool, gray, breezy day. Tomorrow I will make an annual pilgrimage to the Classical Art galleries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And I’ll be paying special tribute to a red-figure Attic psykter from the 5th or 4th century BC, decorated with [...]
Early this morning I met the rest of the crew from the Louisville Rowing Club at the boathouse on Harrods Creek, for a row down the creek to the Ohio River, today running high and rough, and living up to its truckers’ nickname of “Big Muddy”.
Afterwards, at breakfast, we looked through the Louisville Courier-Journal’s long [...]
“I cannot tune a harp or play a lyre,” said the Athenian soldier-statesman Themistocles, “but I know how to make a small city great.” His vision set Athens on a course towards greatness when Themistocles persuaded his fellow citizens to build a fleet of 200 warships known as triremes - long galleys propelled by triple banks of oars. This navy, originating in the years 483-480 BC, was one of the finest fighting forces in the history of the world, and became the model for all other national navies to come. The Athenian navy fought for Greek liberty against the invading Persians, established the city’s radical democracy, built a maritime empire, launched the famous Golden Age of Pericles, Socrates, Plato, and the Parthenon.
The Golden Age began on a September day in the year 480 BC, when Themistocles lured the unwary armada of King Xerxes of Persia into the narrow straits between the island of Salamis and the Greek mainland. The sea battle between Greeks and Persians lasted all day, and resulted in a crushing defeat for the Persian fleet, the largest naval force ever assembled. The battle remains one of the key turning points, not only in the on-going conflict between East and West, but in all of world history.
John Hale’s book LORDS OF THE SEA (Viking 2009) presents, for the first time, the definitive history of the epic battles, the swift and dangerous ships, the indomitable will of the Athenian people, and the stories of great leaders, from visionary strategists to seductive rogues, who established Athens’ supremacy. The naval engagements of the Persian, Peloponnesian, and Macedonian wars are interwoven with tales of Athenian life and culture on shore. During its century-and-a-half of greatness, Athens was a city wedded to the sea, and its achievements, its triumphs and its tragedies, can only be understood in the light of the Athenians’ own role as master seafarers.
“I have never felt so much that I was in ancient Athens as when I was reading this book.” Donald Kagan, author of THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.
