Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy & the Birth of Democracy by John R. Hale

Apr 03, 2013 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Scholar John Hale traces the Golden Age of Athens (480-322 BC) and the importance of naval power, which saved them from the Persians, created an empire, and was the backbone of Athenian democracy. The Trireme, a 120-foot wooden ship with a bronze ram at the prow, was manned by 170 rowers on 3 levels - these rowers were free men, not slaves, and had to be well-trained to execute combat maneuvers.
In addition to the great statesmen and military leaders of the age (Themistocles, father of the Athen...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Jrobertus rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting, albeit lengthy, book. It describes the rise of the Athenian navy in the Golden Age, and its role and impact on the concept of democracy. Themistocles opined that building a great navy would make Athens a great city state and this proved to be so. Although outnumbered badly, Athenian triremes crushed Xerxes Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis in 480BC and set the stage for two centuries of greatness. The Athenians battled not only Persians, but Spartans and ultimate...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Garrett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This is a great history on the development, rise, and decline of the Athenian navy. Hale excels at narrative history stretching from Themistocles' leadership in the development of the Athenian navy to defeat the Persian threat, through the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, and onto its last battles against the heirs of Alexander the Great.

Using the navy as a prism to view Athen's cultural and political rise, Hale introduces the reader to well-known Athenian personages and their infuence on or by t...more

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May 12, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-history

The title and back cover initially led me to believe LORDS OF THE SEA was an analysis of how the ancient Athenians’ decision to "navalize" ultimately led to adoption of democratic government. Instead of analysis, per se, the author, John Hale, embraced a more chronological, narrative-history approach. In so doing, he employs the novelist’s method of "showing, rather than telling" how naval expansion politically empowered the middle and lower classes of Athens.

That the author uses a novelistic ef...more The title and back cover initially led me to believe LORDS OF THE SEA was an analysis of how the ancient Athenians’ decision to "navalize" ultimately led to adoption of democratic government. Instead of analysis, per se, the author, John Hale, embraced a more chronological, narrative-history approach. In so doing, he employs the novelist’s method of "showing, rather than telling" how naval expansion politically empowered the middle and lower classes of Athens.

That the author uses a novelistic effect is not at all meant as criticism. Hale’s writing is gripping and evocative. He makes you feel as though you’re actually sailing "the wine-dark sea," the foam of waves splashing your face as you sit on the prow of an Athenian warship, the "trireme."

As with many books that cover this period, LORDS OF THE SEA, while ostensibly focused on naval history, is in truth a good overall history of Athens during its golden age——from the victory against the Persians, through the Peloponnesian Wars, until Alexander of Macedon brought the end of democracy and instituted an age of kings. All the major developments of the period are given fresh treatment, and the individuals who dominated that era——Themistocles, Pericles, Cleon, Alcibiades, Demosthenes, and others——come alive.

When discussing the history of ancient Athens, the Peloponnesian War naturally looms large. Indeed, about two-thirds of the book is about that "Greek world war." This massive conflict exerts such a hold on my imagination that, every time I read about it, I find myself rooting for the Athenians, even though I already know the eventual, dismal outcome.

One final observation: History owes Themistocles an unimaginable debt of gratitude of convincing the Athenians not to use revenue from a newly-discovered (in the 490s BC) silver mine to, in effect, give a “tax cut” to everyone in Athens. Instead, he persuaded his fickle, democratic countrymen to invest in a public works project of common purpose: building a massive navy. Without that investment, Xerxes may well have conquered Greece and, likely, much rest of Europe——extinguishing the light of classical Greece before it had a chance to flourish. The history of the world without that guiding light is a vision of darkness I don’t wish to imagine.(less)

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Sep 20, 2009 Roger Burk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hale has written an engaging history of the Athenian navy during its period of power, from when Themistocles convinced the Athenians to use a silver strike in 483 BC to build the fleet that stopped the Persians until a later Athenian fleet surrendered to the Macedonians after trifling resistance in 322. I think we sometimes get the idea that the Athenian navy did little of note outside of the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, but their other wars were also important, lacking only their Herodotus o...more Hale has written an engaging history of the Athenian navy during its period of power, from when Themistocles convinced the Athenians to use a silver strike in 483 BC to build the fleet that stopped the Persians until a later Athenian fleet surrendered to the Macedonians after trifling resistance in 322. I think we sometimes get the idea that the Athenian navy did little of note outside of the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, but their other wars were also important, lacking only their Herodotus or Thucydides to give us a compelling account. For instance, a 300-ship fleet sailed to Egypt in the 450s to aid a revolt against the Persions, and it was destroyed. Who knew? The decisive Athenian defeat by the Spartans in 404, which at the time seemed like the End of Everything, turned out to be but a blip in the history of their navy; they were a power again by 378.

Criticisms: A lot of this history concerns general Athenian politics and its influence on naval matters. I suppose that's because of the lack of good sources on strictly naval affairs. Hale does not warn the reader (except in an endnote) that his reconstruction of the Battle of Salamis is not universally accepted. He has the Persian fleet forming up parallel to the Attic shore and facing the Greeks along the opposite shore. I think the more common opinion is that the Persions formed a line across the straight, at right angles to the shores, which nullified the great Persian advantage in numbers. In Hale's recontruction, it is hard to understand not only why the Persians did not envelope the Greek line, but also why their defeated right wing would attempt to escape by sailing several miles behind the rest of the line towards the Piraeus, rather that running to the Persian-held shore immediately behind them. How many other dubious reconstructions have been presented as fact in this book? The reader should be advised about what is known vs. what is guessed.

And now for a pet peeve: Hale has become convinced that the triremes of this era were rowed with a sliding seat (illustration on p. 41). This highly dubious idea is inconsequential to his tale, but it still bugs the hell out of me. He justifies this with three illustrations from ancient sources, showing rowers with knees bent at the catch (A), knees partially bent during the drive (B), and knees straight at the finish (C). The ancient pictures, from three different times and places, in fact show the opposite of what Hale claims. (A) indeed shows knees bent at the catch, but it is not of a trireme, and a similar pottery fragment from c750 BC shows knees bent at the finish (The Age of the Galley, ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1995, p. 41). Also, the spacing between the rowers shows no room to slide back. Apparently some early galleys had shallow draft and the rowers sat with bent knees. (B) shows the one rower from the famous Lenormant Relief (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil...) whose knees are raised; the other seven very plainly have their thighs perfectly horizontal in the drive, and so are clearly not sliding. The bent-kneed rower is simply sitting over a cross-piece. Also, there is again no room for the rowers to slide. Finally, (C) is from a 700 BC potsherd (ibid., p. 27, mirror-imaged), 300 years before the Lenormant Relief and centuries before triremes. The rowers are only shown from the hips up; it's not clear how straight their knees are. It is clear that there is no room between them for a sliding seat.

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Sep 07, 2011 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, history-and-biography, military-history, ebooks

Lords of the Sea provides an illuminating account of the rise and fall of the Athenian maritime empire or thalassocracy . Author Hale brings three elements to his story; a strong narrative voice; a provocative thesis; and his own experience as a rower, something that gives his tale a distinct personal touch. The heart of the maritime empire was the trireme and Hale makes this point in a lyrical introduction:

"At dawn, when the Aegean Sea lay smooth as a burnished shield, you could hear a trireme...more Lords of the Sea provides an illuminating account of the rise and fall of the Athenian maritime empire or thalassocracy . Author Hale brings three elements to his story; a strong narrative voice; a provocative thesis; and his own experience as a rower, something that gives his tale a distinct personal touch. The heart of the maritime empire was the trireme and Hale makes this point in a lyrical introduction:

"At dawn, when the Aegean Sea lay smooth as a burnished shield, you could hear a trireme from Athens while it was still a long way off. First came soft measured strokes like the pounding of a distant drum. Then two distinct sounds gradually emerged within each stroke: a deep percussive blow of wood striking water, followed by a dashing surge. Whumpff! Whroosh! . . . . Relentlessly the beat would echo across the water, bringing the ship closer. It was now a throbbing pulse, as strong and steady as the heartbeat of a giant. . . . As the trireme hurtled forward, the steering oars and the bronze ram hissed like snakes as they sliced through the water. In the final moments, as the red-rimmed eyes set on the prow stared straight at you, the oar strokes sounded like thunder. Then the ship either ran you down or swerved aside in search of other prey."

The book is far more than an investigation in naval archeology, however, Hale relates the story of the rise of Athens, of the Golden Age of Socrates, Plato, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, of the Parthenon, and of the first stirring of the democratic ideal. Hale's thesis is direct, without the Athenian navy there would have been no golden age. The navy begat empire, and empire, for better or worse bequeathed the artistic and philosophic impulses that were the foundation of Western civilization.

Hale traces the rise of Athens sea empire from Themistocles' first speeches urging the building of the navy in 483 B.C. down to the final ignominious surrender to the Macedonians at Amorgos in 322 B.C. The Persian Wars begin the tale. When Persia invades Greece, the Spartan army gathers allies and prepares to buy Greece time by holding the Persians at Thermopylae. This Leonidas and the 300 do but it is the Athenian naval victories at Artemesium and Salamis that turn the lynchpin of history. Hale quotes Herodotus' famous remark: “If the Athenians, through fear of the approaching danger of Xerxes, had abandoned their country, or if they had stayed in Greece and submitted to the Persians, there would have been no attempt to resist the Persians by sea. In view of this, therefore, one is surely right to say that Greece was saved by the Athenians." And this is where the democratic spark is kindled for the 170 rowers on each Athenian trireme were citizens, not slaves but citizens fighting for freedom

Hale moves on to chronicle the battles of Athens in the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars, the Samian War, down to the Macedonian Wars and the extinguishing of freedom at Athens. It is a remarkable tale filled with all the usual binary elements: courage and cowardice; intelligence and stupidity; despotism and freedom. One final quote. Here's Hale on the night after the end at Thermopylae:

At the Hot Gates the distant coast appeared lit by an unearthly glow. In and around the pass shone the myriad flames of the Persian camp: victory bonfires, watch fires, fires for roasting meat, and the blazing fire altars of the Magi. Xerxes’ army was celebrating its first taste of Greek blood. Somewhere amid the eerie wisps from the hot springs stood Xerxes’ proudest trophy: the head of Leonidas, cut from his body and stuck on a pike. Out at sea, hidden by darkness, the ghostly line of ships made its way past the scene of revelry and vanished southward into the night.
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Jan 03, 2011 Chris Aylott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lively history of the Greek navy and its role in the political and social history of Athens. Hale shows how the navy was the backbone of Athenian society, and how the nautical mindset lives on in our language and though patterns today.

I enjoyed the characters and the tales of their deeds -- there's a lot of stuff in here that would make a great movie or adventure novel. But it's also a little depressing. It's clear that the economy of the Athenian Golden Age worked only because they were being...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Wayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book tells the story of the rise and fall of the Athenian navy, from around 483-322BC. I found this a fascinating story, very engagingly told. Athens, of course, is the primary focus, but you get lots of involvement from Persia and Sparta, as well as a host of other cities and areas. This tells of the development of Athens as an overwhelming seapower, wars, battles, politics. There are stories of individuals, as well as the navy. Lotsa good fun here.

Ancient Athens was the birthplace of demo...more This book tells the story of the rise and fall of the Athenian navy, from around 483-322BC. I found this a fascinating story, very engagingly told. Athens, of course, is the primary focus, but you get lots of involvement from Persia and Sparta, as well as a host of other cities and areas. This tells of the development of Athens as an overwhelming seapower, wars, battles, politics. There are stories of individuals, as well as the navy. Lotsa good fun here.

Ancient Athens was the birthplace of democracy, but those ancient Athenians were nutcases. Every citizen had a vote, but they really should have engaged their brains before voting. It sounds like they were more easily swayed by good oration than by the logic in the oration. Sure, you might be upset that an admiral lost a battle, but do you really need to execute him? They never learned, either. They never learned that they were injuring themselves with the extreme punishments handed out to people. (It is my assessment that the ancient Athenians were raving idiots, not Hale's. Often brilliant raving idiots, but raving idiots nonetheless.)

I think the author was very subtly drawing comparisons between this Golden Age Athens and Post-9/11 USA. The USA wasn't ever mentioned, but given the topic and with it being written after 9/11, it'd be naive to think that Hale didn't have such comparisons in mind.

The major, major problem with this book is its lack of a comprehensive map. It has a good number of maps, and they're very useful. However, it really needs one map (or even one maps divided into a couple pages) that lays out the seas, the land, the island, the cities, all the places referred to in the book. The book often had maps and text references closely located. Just as often, the references were nowhere near a map. It got rather frustrating having to slog through the maps trying to find where this city was, or where that sea was.

I'd have also liked to have a bit more discussion of numbers. There was talk of thousands of prisoners being taken after a battle. Where had these thousands come from? How did their loss affect the place they came from? If Athens lost 10,000 citizens as a result of a battle or war, how many people were left in its cities? Sure, the navy took a hit in that case, but what about the cities and the people?

Despite these problems, I highly recommend this book if you have an interest in ancient Greece or naval matters.(less)

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Nov 13, 2010 Peterb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, history, military-history

John Hale's "Lords of the Sea" is an in-depth history of the Athenian thalassocracy from before the Peloponnesian Wars, up until Cleitus, one of the Macedonian successors to Alexander the Great, forced Athens to accept the yoke. It is a fascinating read.

Hale brings a very specific perspective to this topic: as a crew rower, he is perhaps more interested in the naval side of Athens than of any other aspect. Hale makes a compelling case that Athenian democracy itself had both its roots and its flo...more John Hale's "Lords of the Sea" is an in-depth history of the Athenian thalassocracy from before the Peloponnesian Wars, up until Cleitus, one of the Macedonian successors to Alexander the Great, forced Athens to accept the yoke. It is a fascinating read.

Hale brings a very specific perspective to this topic: as a crew rower, he is perhaps more interested in the naval side of Athens than of any other aspect. Hale makes a compelling case that Athenian democracy itself had both its roots and its flowering in naval power. Athens, like the other Greek poleis of their day, only allowed citizens to serve in the military. The trireme, Athens' war vessel with 3 rows of oars on each side, needed 170 men to power it. With hundreds of triremes - each one able to ram and cripple enemy ships - Athens needed thousands of citizens actively involved in the war effort, citizens who needed to provide neither arms, nor armor, nor anything beyond a strong back and the will to fight. This need, Hale argues, made democracy rather more likely to flourish in Athens than in land-based poleis, whose military might resided in the hoplite phalanx. Hoplites, needing to supply their own arms and armor, were by definition men of property; not so the humble sailor.

Hale backs up his argument with evidence that the Athenians themselves saw life through the lens of naval warfare. Citing works by Euripidese... My favorite little etymological guilty pleasure would have to be Hale's offhand observations on sexual terminology:

"A woman's vagina could be described as a kolpos or gulf, like the Carinthian and Saronic gulfs, where a happy seafarer could lose himself. As for the penis, a modest man could claim to have a kontos or boat pole, an average man a kope or oar between his legs, and a braggart a pedalion or steering oar. Inevitably too, the erection poking against an Athenian's tunic was referred to as his "ram." Sexual intercourse was likened to ramming encounters between triremes, but the men did not always take the active role. The popular Athenian sexual position in which the woman sat astride her partner gave her a chance to play the nautria or female rower, and row the man as if he were a boat. A man who mounted another man might claim to be boarding him, u sing the nautical term for a marine boarding a trireme. Sexual bouts with multiple partners were sometimes dubbed naumachiai or naval battles."

Hopefully Hale will forgive me choosing perhaps the only sexually explicit passage in his 500 page book as an excerpt. But I am now waiting eagerly for life to give me a chance to deploy the word naumachiai in this context. May I live long enough.

The modern image of golden age Athens is wrapped up in images of philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, in deep conversation about life and government. But Hale points out that these men were, largely, reactionaries. A chapter-long discourse on Plato's fable of Atlantis shows how it was a crypto-mythological critique of Athens' addiction to sea power, which is a perspective I was, before this book, simply unaware of. The thought of people ignoring that critique in favor of searching for the "real" Atlantis would, one suspects, make Plato weep.

I was led to Lords of the Sea by my explorations of Thucydides. I was searching for something that put the Peloponnesian War in a larger context. The fear when you pick up a book such as this is that it will prove to be nothing more than a palimpsest, a summary of things that other, better writers have created. What Hale has actually accomplished is a synthesis, drawing from ancient sources but also contributing his own insights. I was considerably enriched by Lords of the Sea, and I recommend it unreservedly to anyone interested in the history of Hellenic warfare.

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Apr 10, 2011 Marks54 rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can see as I write these entries that I have a thing for books about various sorts of "Lords" "of finance", "of Strategy", now "of the Sea". This is a book by classical history about the biography of the Athenian Navy, including much information about the ships, how they were built and organized, and how they fought. It is especially interesting to me since I spent the time to read Thucydides and subsequently works by Kagan and Hanson on the Peloponnesian Wars. It is a good review of that mate...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book. It follows Athens and it's navy from the Persian invasion of Xerxes to the death of Alexander the Great and relies on ancient sources as well as modern archeology. It's a fun read and shows how Themistocles's vision of an Athenian navy would lead to his small city's golden age. It is filled with accounts of naval battles (along with several maps) as well as many familiar faces such as Aeschylus (a veteran of the battle of Salamis), Demosthenes (a stutterer who became...more

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Jun 11, 2009 Gerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Ever since the movie 300 I've had a renewed interest in ancient Greece. In Lords of the Sea, Hale follows the history of Athens and its relationship to its navy from the naval battle of Artemisium, which took place near and protected Thermopylae, and the battle of Salamis, which ended the Persian incursion into the Aegean Sea, through various further engagements with Persian forces, the rise of the Delian League, the Peloponnesian War, and Athens conflict with Macedon.
Along the way Hale explo...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-history, politics

The sea played an important role in Athens. Hale takes us through the development of the Athenian navy and Athenian democracy, how they were intertwined and how narrow the line was/is between the Navy's role in developing and supporting democracy and the use of the Navy to subjugate. It is interesting that Alfred Thayer Mahan in his "Influence of Seapower Upon History" barely mentions the Greeks at all. Hale does discuss tactics somewhat but that is not the main thrust of his work. Hale discusse...more

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Jan 29, 2010 Jim Good rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, history

A well written chronological history of the Athenian navy starting with Themistocles vision of a thalassocracy in 483 BC through to the Macedonian dismantling of the city in 322 BC. The book is a narration of events through the eyes of the leaders and main events. Hale certainly has knowledge of the battles and strategies and shares some of the underlying larger historical arcs, but misses the common man’s motivation, training and life. His theory of how the navy fostered democracy by raising ev...more

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May 12, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

A stirring history of the world's first dominant navy and the towering empire it built

The navy created by the people of Athens in ancient Greece was one of the finest fighting forces in the history of the world and the model for all other national navies to come. The Athenian navy built a civilization, empowered the world's first democracy, and led a band of ordinary citizens on a voyage of discovery that altered the course of history. Its defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 BCE launch...more

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Apr 16, 2012 José rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hale's narratives spans the life of the Athenian navy as the military muscle and imperial police force of an independent, democratic Athens. There isn't a stone that he leaves unturned, covering everything from the small details of life aboard the triremes, trireme construction and maintenance, blow-by-blow descriptions of Athens' most important naval battles, the influence on the navy of the most famous figures in Athenian politics (to include the most important debates in the Assembly), the co...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Joe White rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-shelf, boats, history, rowing

This is a detailed narrative told from the perspective of Athens, of the entire Greek world from 483 BC to 322 BC. If specifically focuses on the creation and use of the trireme navy by Athens as a supporting backdrop for the major politicians and generals that shaped the lifestyle and government of the city and region. It is the detailed enumeration of so many personalities that tend to make this a work that requires effort to follow. The book is written in a narrative fashion which flows from...more This is a detailed narrative told from the perspective of Athens, of the entire Greek world from 483 BC to 322 BC. If specifically focuses on the creation and use of the trireme navy by Athens as a supporting backdrop for the major politicians and generals that shaped the lifestyle and government of the city and region. It is the detailed enumeration of so many personalities that tend to make this a work that requires effort to follow. The book is written in a narrative fashion which flows from battle to battle, and is very clear and concise while depicting each event. It is the sheer number of critical events, each having elements and personalities that might overlap from previous events that begin to make this a tedious read for a casual or recreational reader. For comparison, U.S. history told from the perspective of major politicians with every general of every major decisive battle through time, becomes tedious due to the sheer volume of details that can occur in 150 years.

My objective in reading this was to get a better background on the maritime capabilities that existed at this time in world history. This book does somewhat enlighten subjects such as the number of boats in various battles, how the warships were arrayed and used at the start and during a battle, and the outcomes and turning points of the battles. It references the number and generalized type of men required for manning ships for a campaign. It also makes references to the fact that due to the need for a supply of lumber, deforestation and the accompanying soil loss left much of Greece in a more barren agricultural and horticultural state than what would have existed with better resource management. I would like to have seen a spreadsheet type analysis of the number and types of ships involved over time, with a resource estimate as to the number and types of trees required to support the trireme type of ship, as well as more direct information on the effort required to row these vessels at various speeds, and the related estimated cost of food and resources required for a crew.

Some cost and financial values were stated, but were not expressed in equivalency to current currency or financial measurements. The merchant maritime activity was largely ignored, which leaves blanks in the historical fabric.

This is one of the best summations for this historical time period, as seem from and limited to the exclusive viewpoint of Athens, regardless of any criticisms I have.(less)

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Apr 22, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Erik by: Kelly Kingdon

Shelves: history

I have read many histories of ancient Greece, of Athenian democracy and of "the golden age of Athens". Given our own cultural mythology, so many have been written that the field tends towards cliches. Hales' Londs of the Sea is a departure from the run of the mill, detailing as he does the history of Greece from the battle of Marathon through the Macedonian conquest by telling the story in terms of the Athenian thallasocracy cum democracy. His book is the most readable work I've yet read on the...more I have read many histories of ancient Greece, of Athenian democracy and of "the golden age of Athens". Given our own cultural mythology, so many have been written that the field tends towards cliches. Hales' Londs of the Sea is a departure from the run of the mill, detailing as he does the history of Greece from the battle of Marathon through the Macedonian conquest by telling the story in terms of the Athenian thallasocracy cum democracy. His book is the most readable work I've yet read on the period.

Most histories leave me frustrated. Too many questions are left unanswered. I wonder if we simply don't have the evidence to answer the questions that arise for me or if authors assume readers already know the answers. Hale was not frustrating in this way. Not only did he anticipate such concerns, but he managed to go beyond them, opening vistas of speculation that I'd not thought of before. He does this primarily in terms of the Athenian navy. He not only describes the ships, the triremes, but tells how they were built all the way down to the peggings between planks and the structure of the shipyards. He not only describes the important sea battles, but he tells how the ships were deployed, how they maneuvered, what the weather was like that day etc. If there is any flaw to this method of explication it could only be that he gives the impression that we know more than we actually do about events in the ancient world, that perhaps he tendentiously reconstructs events with more apparent confidence than he deserves. Indeed, this is doubtless the case in some instances, but the result is a history that flows like a good novel. Everything makes sense. The characters are realistically represented, believable. So, too, his argument that classical Athens was first and foremost a people's navy may come across as all-to-convincing, as obvious, undebatable.

Still, Hale is well-suited for his task. Not only is he a classicist and archaeologist, he is also a rower himself, someone sensitive to the importance of current, of weather, of crew solidarity and leadership, but also to the sensivities of the thetic buttocks of the average Athenian sailor. (less)

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Apr 15, 2013 Walt O'Hara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read LORDS OF THE SEA in a somewhat desultory fashion in paper about two years ago, and put it down, not to get to it again, not because I didn't like it, I just lost track of it and didn't get back to it. Recently I checked out a library audio copy from Overdrive, and I finished it last weekend. I am now going to go back and re-read the paper book to get the names right. LORDS OF THE SEA is an excellent, readable history of the rise of the Athenian navy and the Wars of the Delian League that...more

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Oct 15, 2009 Clif Brittain rated it 4 of 5 stars

When rowers ruled the world!

I am a rower, so I am sure this influences my review.

I read half of this on my Kindle, which was a mistake. I ended up getting it in hardback through interlibrary loan so I could savor the maps and illustrations. Maps are key to understanding any sort of warfare, and their representation on the Kindle is worse than poor. I think there are sixteen shades of grey available on the Kindle, but only two on maps, both so light that they cannot be read.

Sam Manning is the bes...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Thomas Harlan rated it 4 of 5 stars

A lucid and concise walk-through of ancient Athens and it's navy; battle descriptions are well done and the political manoeuvring is also well depicted. A good companion - perhaps a good pre-read to one of the bigger histories of the Persian or Peloponnesian wars - and nicely illustrated. A bit more on the affects of the navy on the politics of Athens would have been good; the conflict between the oligarchs and the demokratia is certainly covered, but seems to be lacking a cornerstone to make it...more

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Feb 06, 2010 Dimitri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting read after Kagan and Thucydides - doesn't touch on the land portion of the Peloponnesian War at all. I was really struck by the story of the Athenians blaming their generals after Arginusae and making them drink hemlock. Classic example of the passions of the mob and how even a democracy with good intentions can make horrific decisions.

Also learned about the history of Athens after 400 BC - they had an incredible arsenal in the 4th century but the people had lost the will to fight.

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Dec 03, 2009 Mackay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

What a great book! Hale tells an important story very very well--his prose is smooth, vivid, and easy; he conveys sometimes difficult concepts simply; he makes the Golden Age of Athens live and breathe. As Donald Kagan (THE dean of scholars of this age), finding something new and important to say about Athens, the wars with Persia and Sparta, Periclesian Athens...it's rare and important. But it reads almost like a novel. Great maps and line drawings, too.

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Mar 09, 2011 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book shows the intersection between Athenian Naval power and Athenian Democracy. I enjoyed reading the first 2/3s a great deal, learning about the triremes, the Peloponesian war, and the wars with Persia, but was less interested after the death of Socrates.

Well written, obviously well researched, with good maps and drawings, it's worth reading for anyone interested in classical history, naval history, or both.

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Oct 07, 2010 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a first rate history about the Athenian navy and its influence on Athenian democracy. It is also very interesting to learn how influential the arts were in Greek life and politics. Most of the playwrights, like Aeschylus had also fought naval battles and/or were generals and their plays could change public (the citizens) opinion. The descriptions of the sea battles and shipbuilding are just terrific...really!

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Aug 11, 2011 Brian Lowery rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel reads like fiction, but the stories are all true. It is an amazing history of the Ancient Greek Navy, the battles they fought, and their dealings with the Persians, Spartans, and Macedonians. The rise of this naval powerhouse showed how ruling the seas both protected Greek Culture at home, but also spread their ways of life to surrounding islands and eventually all the way to the Black Sea.

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Feb 11, 2013 Owen Adams rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another history novel written by a historian trying to write like an novelist. The biggest mistake these authors make is attempting to transition from the dry academic history they're accustomed to in order to appeal to a broader audience. Most of the book is well written and informative, the 'poetic touches' Hale uses to try and add some excitement to the material are stilted and awkward.

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Jan 28, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the better history books I've read. It gives the entire scope of Athens history from its start to eventual decline after Alexander and all its massive peaks and valley in-between. Was enthralled from the beginning even though having read Thucydides I knew the history up till the end of the Peloponnese war this book made it come to life even further while at the same time being very well sourced and accurate. Really enjoye it.

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Apr 26, 2010 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, international

John Hale's book is actually a history of the rise and fall of classical Athens framed by the story of the Athenian Navy. Hale tells this history clearly and well in a scant 300 pages, pretty impressive given that his story includes Thermopylae, Salamis, the building of the Long Walls, the Peloponnesian War, the story of Atlantis and Plato's aim in creating it, the death of Socrates, and more.

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May 30, 2010 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Democracy arose and was supported by the build-up of the Athenian Navy, according to this author, because manning the triremes and other ships in use from 483 B.C. through 322 B.C. required the active participation of the lower classes of society in warfare, which gave them more status in the wider society. This book explains the design of the ships, the methods of use, the strategies and tactics behind naval warfare, the design of the cities and geographical features of the land from the wester...more

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Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy & the Birth of Democracy

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Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy & the Birth of Democracy

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