Book Review: Lords of the Sea by John R. Hale

November 6th, 2012 by zen

….The Assembly sent Phocion and Demades and Xenocrates, the head of the Academy, to ask Antipater [ Alexander the Great”s regent and successor ]  about terms: a war hero, an orator, and a philosopher to negotiate the fate of a once-great city. Antipater demanded a payment of indemnity equal to the full cost of the war, the handing over of Demosthenes and other enemies of Macedon, and the evacuation of Samos. The thetes of the demos, defined as all citizens with a net worth of less than two thousand drachmas, were to be expelled from Athens. The wealthier citizens who remained must surrender the fort on Munychia Hill in the Piraeus to a Macedonian garrison.

…..So the Athenian envoys returned to Athens with the terms of surrender that gave up Athenian independence and, for all practical purposes, Athenian identity. The incredible had happened. Almost three-fifths of the citizens – 12,000 out of 21,000 – failed to pass Antiper’s test of wealth. They were the rabble, the mob, the radical democrats who were everywhere blamed for all the crimes of restless, ambitious, and expansionist Athens. They were now to be banished for the good of all, not merely from Athens but for the most part from Greece itself

The Athenian Assembly would have been far better off keeping Demosthenes, executing the trierachs who had cravenly surrendered to Cleitus the White and his Macedonian fleet, ostracizing Phocion, Demades and Xenocrates and resuming the war. From this defeat, there was no recovery for Athens, nor did the new oligarchy, secure in their power now, seek any. Without the thetes there were no crews to man the ships or skilled laborers to build them at Zea. Athens was broken as a power and a polis forever.

Strongly recommended.

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Posted in academia, analytic, ancient history, Archaeology, authors, book, democracy, empire, greece, historians, history, military, military history, navy, Oligarchy, politics, state failure, strategy, Strategy and War, Tactics, Uncategorized, war, warriors | 2 comments

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  1. anon:

    November 6th, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    A great read.  Well researched.  Four and a half stars on Amazon and would probably have got five but one 3-star mark was griping about the audio version having no maps (duhhhh!).   He also attributes much of Athens Golden Age in architecture and philosophy to their naval power.  Drama also, Hale mentions Aeschylus, Sophocles and many other playwrights of the time were veterans of the Athenian Navy.   I hope that Hale will follow this up with new books on the Phoenicians – or perhaps other historical seafarers such as the Vikings, Venetians, Genoese, Portuguese, Polynesiams, protoMalays, etc.

  2. zen:

    November 7th, 2012 at 2:38 am

    Hi anon,
    . 
    I hope that Hale will follow this up with new books on the Phoenicians – or perhaps other historical seafarers such as the Vikings, Venetians, Genoese, Portuguese, Polynesiams, protoMalays,

     .
    I would like to see one by Hale on the Ventians too – they were the naval superpower of the Mediterranean and they used it to build more of a trading network or extract comparative advantages than a formal naval empire in the classical sense of Athens or the British