The Athenian general, Pericles, according to Thucydides (2.62), once said the Athenians were most powerful over the whole sea, and with some help from D. Kagan (pp. 377–8) his words inspired the title for this history of Athens' roller coaster involvement in naval warfare during the fifth and fourth centuries b.c. Originally published by Viking Penguin (2009) with the subtitle, ‘The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy’, it has also been marketed with the bold subtitle, ‘How the Athenian Navy Changed the World’. This edition bears its dramatic subtitle as a header on the right-hand pages, though not on the title page, where even the author's name is missing. Each version points to the next target market, but H.'s own passionate enthusiasm for the Athenian navy has been lifelong. Well informed through personal experience and close analysis of the ancient literary sources, he makes a forceful argument for an unbreakable bond between the Athenian democracy and its navy; together they rose and fell.

After the preface and introduction, the book is arranged in five parts (‘Freedom’, ‘Democracy’, ‘Empire’, ‘Catastrophe’ and ‘Rebirth’), which are subdivided into 21 chapters. At the end of the book over 50 pages provide a chronology from c. 524 to 322 b.c., a glossary of the technical terms and Greek words used, and a note on the sources (in three parts: chapter by chapter notes; brief biographies of the ancient authors with an assessment of their value for naval matters; and a bibliography of modern sources up to 2008 arranged by themes) before the concluding acknowledgements and index.

The reader with little prior knowledge of Ancient Greece, therefore, is supported by the inclusion of the very helpful and informative sections at the back. The chronology provides an essential timeline listing more than just the naval developments and actions, and in the chapter notes one finds H.'s discussion of conflicting accounts, for example, of the Battle of Salamis (pp. 344–5). Unfortunately, the excellent maps and diagrams usually appear too late in their chapter, after the passage to which they first relate, and there is no reference to forewarn the reader, or even explain what the viewer should understand from the illustration. For example, on p. 41 the diagram ‘Rowing the Trireme’ consists of drawings of a rower at the beginning, middle and end of the stroke, with the labels ‘Catch’, ‘Drive’ and ‘Finish’. Above each is a sketch of similarly posed rowers, the outer two in silhouette and presumably reproduced from pre-classical vase-paintings, while the third in the centre is a figure from the Lenormant Relief. Nowhere is this explained or sources given, and it is left to the observant viewer to realise that the man's bottom has moved across the black line of the bench in the sliding action of ancient rowing. On the whole, archaeological and artistic sources are under-utilised or omitted, for example vase images of Athena holding a ship's sternpost. For technological reasons it is very unlikely that the sail on the Panathenaic Ship was the same woven cloth used to dress the old statue of Athena (p. 137). See now also S. Wachsmann, ‘Panathenaic Ships: the Iconographic Evidence’, Hesperia 81 (2012), 237–66; and on the Zea shipsheds (pp. 256–7), B. Lovén, The Ancient Harbours of the Piraeus. Volume 1. The Zea Shipsheds and Slipways (2011).

The preface presents the fascinating personal background to H.'s recurring engagement with this topic over the past 40 years, and the introduction leaves one in no doubt about H.'s view of the vital and absolutely central role that being a naval power played for better or worse in the ‘Golden Age of Athens’. Through the following chapters, each headed by a date and a quotation from an ancient source, H. tells a story of the important links between the city-state and the Mediterranean Sea in chronological order from the first fleet of triremes to the Macedonian garrison in Piraeus. Athenian society and politics were ‘navalised’ under Cimon and the ‘rule by generals’ is emphasised (p. 90).

The tale with its many (often questionable) anecdotes from later sources is deceptively easy to read, as H.'s flowing style of writing carries the reader along, unchecked by dates in the body of the text or footnote markers. Indeed, the first chapter almost reads like a historical novel with H. as the narrator, characterising Themistocles familiarly, and carefully painting a picture of the city and Athenian society in the early fifth century. Nautical figures of speech are judiciously applied and, as with his treatment of the contemporary generation of new myths, so H. frequently contextualises drama within the social and political history of the period (e.g. pp. 97–9: Persians, The Suppliants, Orestes). ‘Some of the bronze poured into the rams of the Athenian triremes was recycled, melted down from swords that had been wielded in forgotten battles, from keys to vanished storerooms, images of lost gods [?], and ornaments of beautiful women long dead’ (p. 26) typifies his imaginative creativity.

H.'s narrative approach deliberately assumes no deep, prior knowledge of classical history, nor does the plausibly presented account encourage the reader to critique H.'s sources or question his interpretation of the surviving evidence. For those readers who may ask, ‘But how do we know that that is what really happened?’ the brief notes and selective bibliography offer explanations and suggestions for further reading, but the modern references lack specific page numbers, and H. only cites L. Allen (2005) for the Persian background (p. 344). The book is squarely aimed at the interested non-specialist, not the student or scholar who wants to be assured of the validity of the viewpoint presented, or to explore alternatives.

This is not to belittle H.'s achievement in writing a coherent, popular history, especially for the fifth century, which occupies almost 250 of the 318 pages. He has charted a steady course through the flotsam and jetsam of confusing academic arguments: for example, his only comment on the experimental archaeology of the late twentieth century and the fierce debate focussed on understanding how triremes were really made and used appears on p. 343, where one is directed to his own article (1996). However, he is so unreservedly and unapologetically pro-Athenian and pro-democracy, that one would welcome some expression of doubt and stronger acknowledgement of the negative consequences, like the disastrous suffering caused to others when one community aspires to military ‘glory’. There is no uneasy mention of the siege-breaking reinforcements sent by ship to Melos, for example, and Chapter 8, ‘Mariners of the Golden Age’, is an idyllic description of life for ‘the common man’ (p. 121) in Piraeus. While H. has undoubtedly focussed steadfastly on naval matters and events (for example, the land battle at Plataea is reported in one sentence on p. 80), the final story is incomplete and wholeheartedly Atheno-centric. The concentrated focus might be seen as a positive, but without critical consideration of the opinions and agendas of other Greeks, especially the Spartans, the book lacks balance. As a research-informed introduction to Athenian naval history, this volume serves a useful purpose, but the intellectual meat is to be found in the commentary at the back, for example, when H. convincingly clarifies the Battles of Arginusae and Aegospotami in light of his personal observation of the locations (pp. 355–9).

In traditional classical fashion Greek names are Latinised, but italicised and transliterated Greek words are retained for technical terms. British spelling and measurements are generally preferred, but American spelling appears after p. 319. Typographical errors are rare: ‘fghting’ (p. 46); ‘ship-s’ sides' (p. 49); ‘Malaria’ for ‘Malakia’ (p. 161); ‘trier-arch’ (p. 163); ‘Thorugh’ (p. 188); ‘largerthan-life’(p. 209); ‘adouring’ (p. 221); ‘looked back [to?] the revival’ (p. 269); ‘493 b.c.’ (p. 360).