Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/125



The superiority of Athens was, however, due to political rather than commercial causes; and her people were chiefly famed for their daring and prowess as warriors at sea. To the Athenians, Greece was mainly indebted for her freedom from the Persian yoke. It was the Athenian fleet that resisted successfully the gigantic navy of Xerxes; and the description of this fleet, by Herodotus, is almost the only information we possess with regard to the size of Greek ships, and of the relative maritime power of the different Greek states. Describing the naval force which defeated the Persian fleet off the promontory of Artemisium, Herodotus states: —"The Greeks engaged in the sea-service were these. The Athenians furnished one hundred and twenty-seven vessels to the fleet; but the Platæans, from a spirit of valour and zeal, though inexperienced in the sea-service, assisted the Athenians in manning the ships. The Corinthians furnished forty ships, the Megarians twenty; the Chalcideans manned twenty, the Athenians having furnished them with ships; the Æginetans eighteen; the Sicyonians

charges the anchor for Charon's boat at 3 dr. The tropoter cost 2 obols; a needle for sewing the sail, 3 obols; and the pitch, wax, nails, &c, 2 drachmæ more. Again, Demosthenes speaks of a bottomry bond of 3000 drachmæ; and Polyænus states, generally, that a ship cost a talent. Usually the State found the hull, and the trierarch the fittings. In the naval service the pay and the provisions were generally joined together: 20 minæ was good pay for a month, and the complement of a trireme about 200 men; the proportion of sailors, rowers, and fighting men varying considerably at different times. The thranitæ got the best pay (Arnold's note, Thucyd. vi. 43). The whole equipment of shipping (for war) was under the control of trierarchs (Böckh, Publ. Economy of Athens, bk. iv. c. 11).]
 * [Footnote: oar cost 5 drachmæ (Andoc. p. 81); and Lucian, Dial. de Mort. 4,