Lords of the Sea
Books | History / Ancient / Greece
John R. Hale
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 launched the Athenian Golden Age and preserved Greek freedom and culture for centuries. With Lords of the Sea, renowned archaeologist John Hale presents, for the first time, the definitive history of the epic battles, the indomitable ships, and the men-from extraordinary leaders to seductive rogues-who established Athens's supremacy. With a scholar's insight and a storyteller's flair, Hale takes us on an illustrated tour of the heroes and their turbulent careers and far-flung expeditions and brings back to light a forgotten maritime empire and its majestic legacy.
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More Details:
Author
John R. Hale
Pages
395
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2009
ISBN
067002080X 9780670020805
Community ReviewsSee all
"Hale's "Lords of the Sea" is a non-stop adventure into ancient maritime Greece. Hale has a gift for bringing the historical figures of the Athenian age to life with simple but vivid language. There was hardly a dull moment in the book, and Hale peppers it with unexpected observations - did the shipbuilding-induced deforestation of Attica and subsequent massive importation of timber from Macedonia lead to the rise of Macedon and Alexander the Great? What was the process used to cast the enormous bronze rams on Athenian triremes? This book is a great introduction to classical Greece for the general reader."
Max Nova