Happy holidays!

Hey everyone, hope everyone is having a Happy Holiday, however you decide to spend it. Me? Well, Val is working today, so I am spending the day in bed finishing a book that is really interesting: Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy by John Hale:



It tells the story of Athens' rise to power during the Persian Wars, taking the viewpoint that it was Themistocles and his idea to build a navy unlike anything seen in the Mediterranean. While the foresight shown seems like genius, too bad, he couldn't have seen his own fate, as he would later be ostracized from the city. Interesting book, but I am biased as I do enjoy the author.


Ostraka from Athens. Note in the upper left the name of Themistocles