War 2,488 Years Ago

Then sounded the voice of the trumpet, with syllabled fire,
Troubling their line. Commands were shouted. The measured
Sweep of oars smote the ocean. Their ships each one
Clearly took shape before us. The right wing loomed
Foremost, well-ordered; after it galley on galley
Swept proudly, and as they approached us a thundering shout
Stormed at our ears: "O sons of the Greeks, advance!
Free now your native land, set free your children,
Your wives, and the temples of your fathers' gods,
The tombs of your ancestors - now you fight for them all!"
Swift from our decks there arose a responsive clamour -
A babel of Persian speech. There was no time now.
Bronze-beaked and swift, fiercely dashed ship on ship;
First with its stroke was a ship of Hellas that sheared
From a Phoenician galley her figurehead;
Locked then was foe with his foe in the fury of fight!
At first the torrent of Persian vessels sustained
The shock, but when the multitude of our galleys
Jammed in the rocky narrows, and none could help
His fellow, but each with bronze beak tore the other -
Shivered then were their oars, and the cunning Greeks
Hemmed them about and smote them on every side.
The hulls of our ships rolled over, the sea was hidden
With wreckage and slaughtered men; the shores and the reefs
Were choked with our dead. With wild oars went in flight
Each ship unfoundered of our Barbarian fleet.

From The Persians, a tragedy by the Greek poet Aeschylus. Told from the perspective of a Persian messenger reporting to his queen Atossa ...