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

418 Pages·2009·3.72 MB·English

by  John R. Hale

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
PREFACE
Introduction

Part One
CHAPTER 1 - One Man, One Vision [483 B.C.]
CHAPTER 2 - Building the Fleet [483 - 481 B.C.]
CHAPTER 3 - The Wooden Wall [481-480 B.C.]
CHAPTER 4 - Holding the Pass [SUMMER , 480 B.C.]
CHAPTER 5 - Salamis [END OF SUMMER, 480 B.C.]

Part Two
CHAPTER 6 - A League of Their Own [479-463 B.C.]
CHAPTER 7 - Boundless Ambition [462-446 B.C.]
CHAPTER 8 - Mariners of the Golden Age [MID-FIFTH CENTURY B.C.]

Part Three
CHAPTER 9 - The Imperial Navy [446-433 B.C.]
CHAPTER 10 - War and Pestilence [433-430 B.C.]
CHAPTER 11 - Fortune Favors the Brave [430-428 B.C.]
CHAPTER 12 - Masks of Comedy, Masks of Command [428-421 B.C.]
CHAPTER 13 - The Sicilian Expedition [415-413 B.C.]
Part Four
CHAPTER 14 - The Rogue’s Return [412-407 B.C.]
CHAPTER 15 - Of Heroes and Hemlock [407-406 B.C.]
CHAPTER 16 - Rowing to Hades [405-399 B.C.]

Part Five
CHAPTER 17 - Passing the Torch [397-371 B.C.]
CHAPTER 18 - Triremes of Atlantis [370-354 B.C.]
CHAPTER 19 - The Voice of the Navy [354-339 B.C.]
CHAPTER 20 - In the Shadow of Macedon [339 -324 B.C.]
CHAPTER 21 - The Last Battle [324-322 B.C.]

CHRONOLOGY
GLOSSARY
NOTE ON SOURCES
Acknowledgements
INDEX

VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin Group
(Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson
Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25
St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Books Australia Ltd,
250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty
Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India •
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson
New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg
2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in 2009 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © John R. Hale, 2009
All rights reserved

Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward
Diagrams by Sam Manning; ancient images on p. 41 by Sam Manning after John S. Morrison and R. T.
Williams, Greek Oared Ships, 900 -322 B.C., Arch. 50 (A), Clas. 1 (B), and Geom. 43 (C); diagram on p.
257 by Sam Manning based on an image by B. Klejn-Christensen

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Hale, John R., 1951-
Lords of the sea : the epic story of the Athenian navy and the birth of democracy / by John R. Hale
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-10105085-9
1. Athens (Greece)—History, Naval. 2. Democracy—Greece—Athens—History—To 1500.
I. Title.
V37.H355 2009
359.00938—dc22 2009001796

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the
copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the
permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic
editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of
the author’s rights is appreciated.
http://us.penguingroup.com
For my father

THOMAS FARRIS HALE

veteran of the United States Air Force,
who crossed the Pacific Ocean in a troopship when he was twenty-four
and later told his seven children their first stories of war and seafaring
The world before you has two realms open to human enterprise,
land and sea,
and over the whole of the sea you are lords.

—Pericles to the Athenians
PREFACE
THE ATHENIAN NAVY FIRST FLOATED INTO MY CONSCIOUSNESS on
a winter afternoon in 1969, when I encountered Donald Kagan walking down
College Street in New Haven. Across the snowbound expanse of the Yale
campus his prizefighter’s stance and rolling gait were instantly recognizable. I
knew him well as the formidable professor of my Introduction to Greek History
course but had never worked up the courage to speak to him. On the first day of
class Kagan had marshaled the front row of students into an improvised phalanx
of Greek warriors, with notebooks for shields and pens for spears, to
demonstrate military maneuvers. Though like me a new arrival, Kagan already
ranked as a colossus among the faculty. I tacked across the icy sidewalk to let
him pass, but he stopped, asked my name, and inquired what I was doing at Yale.
I stammered a few words about majoring in archaeology and rowing for the
freshman crew. Kagan lit up at once. “Ha! A rower. Now you can explain
something to me. In autumn 429, after Phormio beat the Peloponnesians in the
gulf, they sent their crews overland to launch a sneak attack on the Piraeus.
Thucydides says each rower carried his own oar and cushion. But why on earth
should they need cushions? They certainly didn’t have very far to row.”
We talked for an hour of ships and oars and naval heroes, oblivious to the
cold. I fished up a recollection of rowing pads that had been used by nineteenth-
century American rowers so that they could work their legs during the stroke.
Kagan enlarged upon the tactical genius of the little-known Athenian
commander Phormio. He went on to speak of the many unexplored issues that
obscured the story of the mighty navy of Athens, bulwark of liberty and engine
of democracy. As the great man got under way again, he told me that I should
investigate Athenian history from the vantage point of a rower’s bench. It was an
assignment, I found, for life.
Over the next four years I delved into the evidence for ancient rowing
techniques, hoping to explain the phenomenal speed of ten knots over a full day
of rowing that was attested for Athenian triremes. I also became immersed in