by
Once again I am proud to review a Pen & Sword release. The book shows us thirteen naval battles from The Battle of Lade in 494 BC to
The Battle of Cnidus in 394 BC. The author has picked a very interesting
group of battles to depict. There were, in actuality, so many to choose
from that he mentions he chose only the ones that have the most
information available to historians.
The
author's introduction is unusual in that he does not just explain why
he wrote the book, but gives the reader a grounding in Grecian naval
warfare. It is a short, but very informative lesson. What exactly was a
trireme, how were the rowers set up, and what was each bank of them called? These and more are
answered in the introduction. He also dips our toes in the water of
their tactics. Even the earliest battles show how sophisticated the
Greeks had become in naval warfare. More than 1500 years later some
European naval battles were no more than a land battle at sea, with ships lashed together to make to make a pseudo island to fight on.
The
battles start at the Persian Wars, where Persia was invading Greece.
They continue through the Archidamian and Ionian (usually called the
Decelean War by scholars, but the author points out that all of the
action took place in Ionia)Wars. The familiar names are all here: Conon,
Lysander, and of course Alcibiades. The Greek strategy and tactics of
the period are still studied today. Many of the famous ancient
historians are quoted in the book. The author attempts (I think
successfully) to make sense of these military actions from the sometime
very skimpy sources.
The duel between Alcibiades
and Lysander are the most interesting parts of the book in my opinion.
The author shows that Persian money was the only reason that Sparta was
able to keep fighting at the end of the Peloponnesian War.
All
in all, this is a great book to add to your collection. The maps, which
are a little Spartan (sorry), do help. It would have been nice to see
more of them. Mr. Rees, soon to be Dr. Rees, does an excellent job of
sweeping away the cobwebs of 2500 years. Thank you Casemate Publishers
for allowing me to review this book.
Robert
Author: Owen Rees
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Distributor: Casemate Publishers
geart
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