One of NRO’s very erudite readers recently explained that my post on the

Battle of Lepanto (a 1571 naval battle in the eastern Mediterrenan in which

a Western coalition demolished the Ottoman navy) overstated the battle’s

long-term significance. To wit: the Ottomans swiftly rebuilt their fleet,

and used it to retake Tunis in 1573, and then to conquer Morocco. In 1645,

they launched a successful invasion of Crete. Lepanto was an important

Western victory, but not of the enduring magnitude of Marathon or Tours.