Wooden Walls Can Rot Over Time

John Hale's Lords of the Sea covers the history of the Athenian Navy, starting around the time of the battle at Salamis against the Persians, and moving forward to the point where the Athenians were routed by the Macedonians after Alexander the Great's death.

Hale is focused primarily on the battles. What brought them about, how the Athenians prepared, where they fought, the tactics used, things of that nature. Some of the tactics applied by the various commanders, be it making their force appear larger (or smaller) or luring an enemy into a location or formation were pretty clever. Hale usually includes maps of the relevant locations and ship positions when he begins discussing particular battles, so the reader has that to flip back to if they lose track of where things are happening in relation to each other.

Hale's contention in the book seems to be the Athenian Navy (what Themistocles described as their Wooden Wall*) is what helped form Athenian democracy as we know it, and that helped make Athens into the wellspring of culture, philosophy, art historians regard it as. I could see the outline of his argument in places, but he didn't really flesh it out, sufficiently. The gist seems to be the ships, requiring so many rowers to operate, forced Athens to draft most of her citizens (and later some people who weren't**) into the defense of their home, rather than simply relying on the hoplite or horsemen classes. If those lower economic classes were good enough to serve, why shouldn't they have more say in how their home was run***?

I don't think Hale argues this, but given that (regardless of the impetus) more people had a greater say in how things were run, I wonder if that helped the playwrights of the time? Did it help them feel more free to unleash scathing rebukes on prominent figures and events of the day? Or was it simply that, because Athens was more successful and involved in larger events in the world, the writers had more to work with for their stories?

As I've mentioned in past reviews of history books, people never learn. The Athenians wound up in a long and costly war because they were too heavy-handed in how they ran the First Delian League (a group of Allied city-states in the region). Demanding tribute to pay for Athens' navy, moving Athenian citizens into those lands and taking over, generally throwing their weight around until the rest grew fed up enough to try and do something about it (or ask the Spartans to do something about it). Decades later a Second Delian League formed in response to some renewed Persian aggression, and initially Athens did better, probably because they needed all the help they could get. Eventually, some of the members (including Rhodes) opted to withdraw, and Athens tried to put a stop to it, only to meet with stiffer resistance than they expected.

People, as a mass grouping anyway, seem to love having someone to blame. Doesn't matter if the person blamed was loved the day before, if something's gone wrong, people turn against them quickly. That's the fate of several Athenian generals. After one battle the Athenians won, the generals spent too much too arguing about what to do, chase after and thrash the remaining enemy fleet, or pick up their survivors? As they reached a decision, a storm blew in forcing them to keep their ships ashore (triremes didn't take well to rough seas). By the time the seas cleared, the enemy had escaped, and all the survivors in the water were probably not survivors any longer. The people were frustrated by this, and in the heat of the moment the Assembly voted on the fates on all the generals who came home**** simultaneously (rather than granting each a separate trial), and ordered their deaths by hemlock. This after a battle they had won, though it did firmly establish in future leaders that they had damn well better stop and fish out any Athenians floating in the sea after an engagement. Themistocles was given the boot, and wound up in the Persian Empire, as a governor. Alcibiadies was in and out of trouble (and in and out of Athenian service) throughout his life, and eventually had to set himself up as a warlord elsewhere. Capable generals were removed from service after a loss, then begged to return when things turned dire. Over time, more leaders started hiring themselves out as mercenaries for other lands, figuring it was more regular pay, and their bosses would be less fickle. Which meant Athens started to suffer from a lack of good generals in its later years.

There are certainly things I believe the book could have spent more time on, such as life on the ship. Triremes had sails to use when not in battle, so what did rowers do when not rowing? I assume they slept on their bench, using their rowing pads as pillows, but I'm curious about food storage, whether there were problems when hoplites were on board, and what about when some triremes were altered to carry horses? Even if the rowers weren't wealthy landowners, they likely had some occupation, so who was looking after it in their absence? Was there any sort of fund of protection for families who lost their husband or father in battle? There was a bit where Hale discusses how, after ships would dock in Athens, one of a rower's first stops was the barbershop, and while there, the rower would not only tell tales of what he'd been up to, which the barber could spread across town, but also catch up on everything he'd missed. That was a little slice of life part I appreciated.

* When consulting the Oracle prior to their battles against the Persians, the Oracle made reference to a Wooden Wall being Athens' salvation. No one was sure what that meant, but Themistocles managed to convince the people - enough of them, anyway - she meant their ships.

** At one point they were in dire need of rowers, so the town's slaves were told if they served they would not only be freed, but granted citizenship, which had historically only been for people who could prove both their parents were Athenian (or, like Pericles did for his son, had enough clout to get a special exception). As far as I know, the Athenians kept their promise, though they certainly didn't stop having slaves. They just had to get all new ones.

*** Prior to this, I believe they were still allowed to vote, but only on issues the higher classes had agreed to bring to a mass vote of the Assembly.

**** A couple of the generals were prescient enough to flee in their triremes, rather than return home to face the music.