What do you think?
Rate this book
Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture
The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies
While we know a great deal about naval strategies in the classical Greek and later Roman periods, our understanding of the period in between--the Hellenistic Age--has never been as complete. However, thanks to new physical evidence discovered in the past half-century and the construction of Olympias , a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme) by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we now have new insights into the evolution of naval warfare following the death of Alexander the Great. In what has been described as an ancient naval arms race, the successors of Alexander produced the largest warships of antiquity, some as long as 400 feet carrying as many as 4000 rowers and 3000 marines. Vast, impressive, and elaborate, these warships "of larger form"--as described by Livy--were built not just to simply convey power but to secure specific strategic objectives. When these particular factors disappeared, this "Macedonian" model of naval power also faded away--that is,
until Cleopatra and Mark Antony made one brief, extravagant attempt to reestablish it, an endeavor Octavian put an end to once and for all at the battle of Actium. Representing the fruits of more than thirty years of research, The Age of Titans provides the most vibrant account to date of Hellenistic naval warfare.
until Cleopatra and Mark Antony made one brief, extravagant attempt to reestablish it, an endeavor Octavian put an end to once and for all at the battle of Actium. Representing the fruits of more than thirty years of research, The Age of Titans provides the most vibrant account to date of Hellenistic naval warfare.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published December 9, 2011
3 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 25, 2015
The main point of the book - that large ships (very big) - were used as ramming devices was well stated. However, it seemed that the same points were made for nearly every battle where it is documented that large ships were used.
That repetition amounted to : "I have a theory to relate, I'm telling you about it, I will repeat it - with particular details for each documented battle, and just to make sure you get my point I will tell you again as I summarize".
The information on the casting and machining of the Athlit ram was very good.
It would have helped me to have some reprinted information from the author's sources in regard to the engineering and mechanical propulsion of these boats. A few diagrams of proposed hull shapes and sizes, as well as the layout of the rowing positions that would have been required for such large crews would have helped greatly in visualization. I understand that the author went out of his way to avoid speculative opinions regarding past events that where documented very lightly, and it is his job to formulate a hypothesis on the material available, but it leaves the layman with many unanswered questions.
W.L. Rodgers in "Greek and Roman Naval Warfare" included an appendix to an early chapter which was devoted to proposed line drawings of the smaller and more common ancient ships, with diagrams of possible rowing stations, as well as photos of hypothetical models of ship cross sections and rower placement. I believe that this was published before the Olympia reconstruction and testing of a Greek trireme. The diagrams may have varied from the reconstruction result, but they give the reader a method for visualization of a very complex war device.
Also, this text was sparse regarding ship dimensions and performance. For example, what estimated draft did these ships have, and how close to a fortification could they have actually get for ramming purposes - ie. the depth of water at a fortress wall would need to be unobstructed for a width (Plus some safety margin) of the oars in order for the ship to ram that wall.
If the ships mentioned here were too large to be easily disassembled or pulled on shore for hull cleaning, then how would the hulls have been maintained between actions? Or was each new action that of a new build?
These and many similar practical issues in the use very large boats became an irritant, causing me to do extra Googling, and looking into other books for more information. The author states his gratitude for the research support provided to him in order formulate and support his thesis. But the reader of his thesis doesn't have that information available for comparison of to use as enlightenment at the point of reading the thesis.
That repetition amounted to : "I have a theory to relate, I'm telling you about it, I will repeat it - with particular details for each documented battle, and just to make sure you get my point I will tell you again as I summarize".
The information on the casting and machining of the Athlit ram was very good.
It would have helped me to have some reprinted information from the author's sources in regard to the engineering and mechanical propulsion of these boats. A few diagrams of proposed hull shapes and sizes, as well as the layout of the rowing positions that would have been required for such large crews would have helped greatly in visualization. I understand that the author went out of his way to avoid speculative opinions regarding past events that where documented very lightly, and it is his job to formulate a hypothesis on the material available, but it leaves the layman with many unanswered questions.
W.L. Rodgers in "Greek and Roman Naval Warfare" included an appendix to an early chapter which was devoted to proposed line drawings of the smaller and more common ancient ships, with diagrams of possible rowing stations, as well as photos of hypothetical models of ship cross sections and rower placement. I believe that this was published before the Olympia reconstruction and testing of a Greek trireme. The diagrams may have varied from the reconstruction result, but they give the reader a method for visualization of a very complex war device.
Also, this text was sparse regarding ship dimensions and performance. For example, what estimated draft did these ships have, and how close to a fortification could they have actually get for ramming purposes - ie. the depth of water at a fortress wall would need to be unobstructed for a width (Plus some safety margin) of the oars in order for the ship to ram that wall.
If the ships mentioned here were too large to be easily disassembled or pulled on shore for hull cleaning, then how would the hulls have been maintained between actions? Or was each new action that of a new build?
These and many similar practical issues in the use very large boats became an irritant, causing me to do extra Googling, and looking into other books for more information. The author states his gratitude for the research support provided to him in order formulate and support his thesis. But the reader of his thesis doesn't have that information available for comparison of to use as enlightenment at the point of reading the thesis.
September 9, 2021
This is an interesting topic and something I'm interested in. Yet the book fails to hold my interest.
Perhaps more battle maps and heroic illustrations would help?
Perhaps more battle maps and heroic illustrations would help?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews