Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy & the Birth of Democracy

by John R. Hale

  At first all went well. The Macedonian regent Antipater attempted to crush the uprising, but he was no Alexander, nor even a Xerxes. Under Athenian leadership, the Greeks successfully held the pass at Thermopylae against the invaders. Helpless to deal with the rebels alone, Antipater appealed to the Macedonian generals in Asia for reinforcements and a fleet. The ultimate test of the new Greek alliance, and of Athenian sea power, would come in the following spring.

  Pressing forward with the war effort, the Athenians resolved to equip themselves with two hundred new quadriremes and forty new triremes. That winter every Athenian citizen under the age of forty was conscripted for service. Three tribal regiments would defend the frontiers of Attica. The other seven prepared for campaigns abroad. As the warm weather returned, armies of Macedonians began to cross the Hellespont into Europe, preparing to reinforce Antipater’s troops and crush the rebellion in Greece. In an effort to stop these troops, the Athenians launched a fleet of triremes and quadriremes and sent it northeast across the Aegean. Of that year’s board of generals, Phocion alone could claim experience of a naval battle, and that had been at Naxos, more than half a century before. As he was now almost eighty, it seemed best to send a younger man. Euetion from the deme or township of Cephisia, an aristocrat and a former cavalry commander, was given charge of the war at sea.

  If the Athenians had hoped for the same happy outcome that had met Phocion’s expedition to Byzantium eighteen years before, when he faced down Alexander’s father Philip, they were deluding themselves. The days of Macedonian timidity at sea were long gone. Arriving in the Hellespont, Euetion and his fleet encountered a force commanded by a Macedonian general named Cleitus. A battle was fought in the familiar waters off Abydos, and the Macedonians were victorious. Euetion managed to escape with the bulk of the fleet, but he left many Athenians behind, stranded or captured. Loyal friends of Athens in the city of Abydos rescued as many of these men as they could, gave them money for the voyage back to Athens, and sent them home.

  Cleitus then gathered a fleet of 240 ships and with this immense force left the Hellespont to seek the remnant of the Athenian navy. Despite the hundreds of empty hulls resting in the shipsheds at the Piraeus and the grandiose shipbuilding proposal of the previous year, the Athenians in this moment of supreme crisis were able to provide crews for only 170 ships. Preference was given to the quadriremes, virtually all of which were manned and launched. The two quinqueremes were dispatched also. The rest of Euetion’s force was made up of triremes.

  ATHENS VERSUS THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER, 323-322 B.C.

  Their course took them to the waters off Amorgos, a narrow rugged island on the farthest eastern edge of the Cyclades. Amorgos was no match in size, wealth, or fame to Naxos, its neighbor to the west. However, it possessed on its western coast the finest natural harbor in the archipelago, ringed by fine beaches. Perched on a hill overlooking the harbor, the fortified settlement of Minoa was a reminder of ancient Cretan sea kings and their vanished thalassocracy. Amorgos had been tributary to Athens in imperial days and loyal through the years of the Second Maritime League, yet up to now it had scarcely figured in Athenian naval history.

  When the Macedonian fleet loomed up over the horizon, Euetion arrayed his own fleet for battle—the greatest number of ships to fight for Athens since the debacle at Aegospotami. Even so the Macedonian superiority in numbers was overwhelming. Equally daunting was the reputation of the soldiers on their decks, members of the most ruthlessly effective fighting force on earth. There was a brief clash, and some of Cleitus’ ships managed to overturn three or four Athenian triremes. Before the Macedonians broke through the Athenian line or surrounded their fleet, and before the hopeless contest could turn into a slaughter, Euetion signaled from his flagship to Cleitus’ that the Athenians were ready to surrender.

  Over the last century and a half Athenian fleets had been ambushed in Egypt, annihilated at Syracuse, chased back to their base at Notium, and captured on shore at Aegospotami. The surrender at Amorgos marked the first time in history that an Athenian general had voluntarily yielded to an enemy fleet. Themistocles or Phormio or Chabrias would never have conceded victory without doing his best for Athens in a mighty struggle first. What had changed?

  Athenians of the upper classes had opposed the war of liberation from the first. And there was at least one wealthy citizen on board every ship: the trierarch. The long odds that the Athenians faced at Amorgos would not have intimidated the men who held command during the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, but the generals and trierarchs at Amorgos had approached the battle with no will to win or even to fight. Somehow in the aftermath of surrender Euetion managed to convince Cleitus that the Athenians not only conceded the victory but would never again challenge the Macedonians at sea. Nothing short of such a promise could have justified Cleitus’ action after the battle: instead of claiming prizes, he allowed his enemies to take their damaged ships in tow and depart.

  Without Macedonian harassment or escort, the Athenians left the scene of their defeat in full force. Ahead was the voyage back to the Piraeus. It was a long row home with heavy hearts among the majority who had voted for the war. Did they comfort themselves with hopes that Alexander’s successors would treat Athens as Alexander himself had done? Or that the navy would rise again in months or years to come?

  A false report preceded them across the Aegean—a report of victory. The Athenian triremes had been seen after the battle with their damaged ships in tow, which was ordinarily a sign of the winning fleet. The first man at Athens to hear the rumor put a victory wreath on his head and rode through the city, shouting the glad tidings to his fellow citizens. In an ecstasy of joy, the Assembly ordered sacrifices to the gods and ceremonies of thanksgiving. The euphoria lasted two or three days, until the great fleet arrived at the Piraeus to tell the true story.

  The confrontation with the Macedonian forces on land mirrored the failure at sea. The armies met at Crannon in Thessaly, where a narrow victory for the Macedonians precipitated a complete surrender by the Greeks. Shortly after this debacle Cleitus’ fleet, fresh from its victories in the Hellespont and at Amorgos, caught the squadron of Athenian warships operating in western waters and destroyed them near the Echinades Islands. Even without Philip or Alexander, the Macedonians had been able to master the ancient city-states of Greece.

  The Assembly sent Phocion and Demades and Xenocrates, the head of the Academy, to ask Antipater about terms: a war hero, an orator, and a philosopher to negotiate the fate of a once-great city. Antipater demanded payment of an 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 less than two thousand drachmas, were to be expelled from Athens. The wealth ier citizens who remained must surrender the fort on Munychia Hill in the Piraeus to a Macedonian garrison.

  The three envoys had expected very different terms. They accepted the exile of the thetes, but protested desperately against the loss of Samos and the presence of a Macedonian garrison on Attic soil. Antipater backed off to the extent of referring the case of Samos to the new king, Alexander’s half brother Philip Arrhidaeus. As for the occupation of the Piraeus, the Athenian protest met with laughter. The headquarters of the legendary Athenian navy was a far more strategic stronghold for the Macedonian conquerors than the Acropolis or even the entire city of Athens. Antipater had no need to destroy the naval base or burn the ships. The exile of the troublesome thetes would guarantee the end of Athenian sea power, and its material remains could be useful to the successors of Alexander.

  So the envoys returned to Athens with 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 Antipater’s test of wealth. They were the rabble, the mob, the radical democrats who were everywhere blamed for all the crimes of
a 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.

  Only now could the Athenians understand what had happened at Amorgos. They had saved their lives and most of their ships; they had experienced no defeat to match the horror of Syracuse or the totality of Aegospotami. Yet in the waters off Amorgos they had suffered a loss more costly and decisive than any other in their history. With good reason the Macedonians honored Cleitus as a god, a Poseidon, for overturning those few Athenian triremes. He had accomplished what neither Xerxes nor Lysander nor Philip had been able to achieve: the final defeat of the Athenian navy. In reality, however, Athens had been its own worst enemy. The judgment that Thucydides passed on the Athenians at the end of the Peloponnesian War applied in full force to their final collapse: “It was only because they destroyed themselves with their own internal strife that they were forced to surrender.”

  Land was to be provided for the exiles in Thrace, that harsh northern country that so many Athenians of previous generations had died trying to win. Helpless, the citizens packed up their households and made their way down to the Piraeus for the embarkation. All around hundreds of triremes and other warships still rested in the shipsheds, but their time was over. Without the harmony that had drawn all Athenians together for a common purpose, the ships were so many lifeless hulks of timber and pitch. At the harbor the exiled citizens and their families embarked for the long voyage to Thrace and their new homes. Many would never see Athens again.

  As autumn came the depleted city celebrated the Mysteries at Eleusis, but the rites were marred by a terrible portent. One of the initiates who had waded into the sea to make a sacrifice was attacked and killed by a shark. On the nineteenth of Boedromion the city observed the anniversary of Salamis and the birthday of Athenian maritime supremacy. The triumphant Macedonians, either mocking, ignorant, or indifferent, chose to send a garrison to the Piraeus the following day. Armed with their long pikes, men who had followed Alexander the Great across the Persian Empire now established themselves as an army of occupation in the fort on Munychia Hill.

  Macedonian troops hunted down Demosthenes, who had taken refuge in the sanctuary of Poseidon at Calauria. As the soldiers approached, Demosthenes stepped outside the precinct so as not to desecrate holy soil, then quickly drank poison that he had hidden in his pen. His suicide deprived the Macedonians of their chance to take revenge for his many speeches against Philip and Alexander. In the same year Aristotle died of natural causes. An age was ending.

  When they surrendered to the Macedonians, the Athenians had more ships and a better-equipped naval base than ever before. Philo’s Arsenal was still brand-new. Some mysterious spiritual essence, however, had vanished. As Nicias once reminded the Assembly, a trireme’s crew could remain at the peak of performance for only a short time. For the Athenian ship of state, thanks to the unremitting effort and self-sacrifice of its people, the peak had been prolonged for over a century and a half. Now rule of the sea would pass to other city-states and empires: Rhodes, Carthage, Alexandria, Rome. As for the creative explosion called the Golden Age, it ended with the naval power on which it had been built. With the Athenian people divided and the Piraeus in foreign hands, the reign of Themistocles’ navy reached its final day.

  The gleaming city of marble and bronze still enshrines the memory of many heroes whose ashes lie buried in tombs along the Sacred Way. Thucydides set down a Funeral Oration delivered by Pericles for citizens who died in the Peloponnesian War. Near the end of his speech Pericles issued a challenge: “Famous men have the whole world as their memorial. It is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out. No, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people’s hearts, their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them.” Many have tried, chasing the same goals of democracy, liberty, and happiness that generations of Athenians pursued in their ships. Few can claim to have equaled their achievements; fewer still to have surpassed them.

  CHRONOLOGY

  All dates are B.C.

  ca. 524 Birth of Themistocles. Athens is ruled by the tyrant Hippias and his brother Hipparchus, sons of the original tyrant Peisistratus.

  ca. 521 Darius becomes Great King of Persia.

  ca. 510 With Spartan aid the Athenians expel the tyrant Hippias and his family, who seek refuge in lands controlled by the Persians. Athens joins the alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta.

  508-507 Athenian lawgiver Cleisthenes initiates democratic reforms.

  ca. 506 Hostilities flare up between Athenians and the islanders of Aegina.

  THE PERSIAN WARS [499-449 B.C.]

  ca. 499 Aristagoras of Miletus seeks aid among the Greeks for the revolt of Ionian cities from Persian rule. The Spartans decline, but the Athenians agree to send help.

  ca. 498 Twenty Athenian warships, along with six triremes from Eretria, cross the Aegean and join the rebellious Ionians in an attack on the Persian provincial capital at Sardis. They burn the city but are beaten by a Persian force as they return to their ships. According to Greek tradition, King Darius swears to remember the Athenians.

  ca. 494 The Persians suppress the Ionian revolt with a naval victory at Lade, followed by the capture of Miletus.

  493-492 As eponymous archon of Athens, Themistocles persuades his fellow citizens to turn to the sea and fortify the promontory of the Piraeus in case the Persians invade Attica. During this initial phase the walls are built up to half the height that Themistocles intended.

  ca. 492 Darius’ first expedition against Greece ends in disaster when the Persian fleet is wrecked by violent winds off Mount Athos in the northern Aegean. Nonetheless the Persians add parts of Thrace and the kingdom of Macedon to their realm.

  490 Wary of the northern approaches to Greece, Darius sends a second expedition directly across the Aegean Sea, including cavalry in horse carriers. The Persians capture Eretria, but their hopes of punishing Athens for its part in the burning of Sardis are dashed when Miltiades leads the Athenian hoplite army to victory on the plain at Marathon.

  486 Darius prepares a third invasion of Greece but dies before it can be launched. He is succeeded by his son Xerxes, who is diverted from the plan to attack Athens by a series of revolts in the empire.

  483-482 Themistocles takes advantage of a silver strike in the Athenian mines at Laurium and persuades the Assembly to devote the windfall to the building of a fleet. At his urging, one hundred new triremes are built. Within three years the Athenians have a fleet of two hundred triremes, the largest in the Greek world.

  482 The Athenian statesman Aristides, who opposed Themistocles’ shipbuilding proposal, is ostracized by vote of the citizens. He leaves Athens for a ten-year period of banishment, but is recalled in 480 B.C.

  481 Xerxes leads an immense army westward from his capital at Susa to the city of Sardis. His engineers prepare bridges across the Hellespont and cut a canal through the peninsula at Mount Athos. The Spartans summon those Greeks who are willing to resist the Persians to a council at the Isthmus of Corinth. Themistocles attends as the delegate from Athens.

  480 In early spring the Greeks take Themistocles’ advice and transport an army north to the vale of Tempe, in the hope of blocking Xerxes as far forward as possible. When that line is given up, Themistocles uses the words of the Delphic Oracle to persuade the Athenians to evacuate Attica and put their entire trust in the navy or “Wooden Wall.” Later in the summer the Athenian fleet forms the backbone of Greek resistance at sea, defeating the Persians at Artemisium and Salamis.

  479 While the Greek army deals with the Persian army that Xerxes left behind, the allied fleet carries war across the sea to Persian territory and destroys the Persian triremes at Mycale. The newly liberated Ionians are admitted to the Greek alliance. The Athenian general Xanthippus leads them in the capture of Sestos on the Hellespont.

  478 Thanks to Themistocles, the A
thenians rebuild their city walls despite Spartan recommendations to the contrary. The Athenian general Aristides follows the Spartan regent Pausanias with an Athenian squadron to Cyprus and then Byzantium, where the Ionians beg the Athenians to become their hegemon.

  477 The Athenians and their allies establish the so-called Delian League. Athens will lead punitive campaigns against the Persian Empire, and the allies will contribute either ships or money. Aristides assesses the contributions. The Athenian general Cimon leads the first annual campaign, capturing the city of Eion on the Strymon River in Thrace.

  476 Themistocles sponsors a performance of Phrynichus’ Phoenician Women to remind the Athenians of his own contribution to the victory over the Persians.

  ca. 475 Cimon makes a naval pilgrimage to Skyros, brings the island into the alliance, and returns to Athens with the bones of the mythical hero Theseus.

  472 Though still in his twenties, Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, sponsors the first performance of Aeschylus’ Persians.

  ca. 466 After many successful campaigns, Cimon leads the allied fleet east to the Eurymedon River in southern Asia Minor and wins a victory over Persian forces on sea and land.