Michael
Jan 7th 2010, 02:16 PM
Rowing to Democracy
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Mr. Hale’s thesis in “Lords of the Sea” is that the construction of the mighty Athenian navy, composed largely of lightweight warships known as triremes, in which 170 oarsmen rowed in three tiers, led directly to Athens’s Golden Age and its advanced form of democracy. For more than a century and a half, from 480 to 322 B.C., Athens’s city-state of some 200,000 people had the strongest navy on earth. “Without the Athenian navy there would be no Parthenon, no tragedies of Sophocles or Euripides, no ‘Republic’ of Plato or ‘Politics’ of Aristotle,” Mr. Hale writes. “Before the Persian Wars, Athens produced no great traditions of philosophy, architecture, drama, political science or historical writing. All these things came in a rush after the Athenians voted to build a fleet and transform themselves into a naval power in the early fifth century B.C.” The hard work of building and maintaining a fleet pulled the society together. The protection the navy afforded Athens allowed it to prosper, to fend off the enemies that would have overrun it and changed its tolerant and inquisitive character. Among those who commanded fleets or squadrons of triremes were the playwright Sophocles and the historian Thucydides.
“Lords of the Sea” is, largely, a book about war. It describes a running series of water and land battles between Athens and its shifting enemies, including Persian and Spartan armies and navies.
Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/books/07book.html?_r=1)
This looks like a very interesting and innovative approach to an old topic.
And then there is the timely warning for moderns:
The naval success that built Athens also, in the end, helped destroy it.
When a people has a large and difficult-to-maintain navy, it is tempted to put it to use. The restless Athenians waged campaigns against their allies and often acted aggressively and recklessly, provoking dangerous enemies into war. Folly and hubris are words Mr. Hale employs more than once. Plato was among the critics of Athens’s insatiable navy; so was Aristotle, who thought “trireme democracy” was an evil to itself and others.
Indeed. Something to keep in mind for the 21st century's most powerful naval power.
...
Mr. Hale’s thesis in “Lords of the Sea” is that the construction of the mighty Athenian navy, composed largely of lightweight warships known as triremes, in which 170 oarsmen rowed in three tiers, led directly to Athens’s Golden Age and its advanced form of democracy. For more than a century and a half, from 480 to 322 B.C., Athens’s city-state of some 200,000 people had the strongest navy on earth. “Without the Athenian navy there would be no Parthenon, no tragedies of Sophocles or Euripides, no ‘Republic’ of Plato or ‘Politics’ of Aristotle,” Mr. Hale writes. “Before the Persian Wars, Athens produced no great traditions of philosophy, architecture, drama, political science or historical writing. All these things came in a rush after the Athenians voted to build a fleet and transform themselves into a naval power in the early fifth century B.C.” The hard work of building and maintaining a fleet pulled the society together. The protection the navy afforded Athens allowed it to prosper, to fend off the enemies that would have overrun it and changed its tolerant and inquisitive character. Among those who commanded fleets or squadrons of triremes were the playwright Sophocles and the historian Thucydides.
“Lords of the Sea” is, largely, a book about war. It describes a running series of water and land battles between Athens and its shifting enemies, including Persian and Spartan armies and navies.
Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/books/07book.html?_r=1)
This looks like a very interesting and innovative approach to an old topic.
And then there is the timely warning for moderns:
The naval success that built Athens also, in the end, helped destroy it.
When a people has a large and difficult-to-maintain navy, it is tempted to put it to use. The restless Athenians waged campaigns against their allies and often acted aggressively and recklessly, provoking dangerous enemies into war. Folly and hubris are words Mr. Hale employs more than once. Plato was among the critics of Athens’s insatiable navy; so was Aristotle, who thought “trireme democracy” was an evil to itself and others.
Indeed. Something to keep in mind for the 21st century's most powerful naval power.