Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

250 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
Greek triremes overwhelm the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, 480 b.c.e.
Courtesy akg-images, London: Peter Connolly.
entry was reserved for naval personnel. Naval inventories found
in the Piraeus indicate that together the three harbors possessed
some 370 shipsheds. Even if Athens was able to man only about 200
ships, however, which seems a more reasonable figure, it would
still have needed some 40,000 rowers—approximately the size of
the citizen body. Unsurprisingly, therefore, a sizeable proportion of
these rowers would have been mercenaries.
Aristophanes evocatively tells us that, when a naval expedition
was about to set sail, the Piraeus reverberated with the sound of
“oars being planed, pegs hammered, and rowlocks banged into
place, and all to the accompaniment of shouting, flutes and whistles
of boatswains’ orders” (Acharnians, lines 552–54).
At the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, Athens possessed 300 seaworthy
triremes. By the terms of its defeat in 404 b.c.e., it was required
to surrender all but 12. The size of its fleet increased during the fourth
century, reaching an all-time peak of over 400 in 322 b.c.e. —ironically,
just before its sea power suffered a fatal reverse at the hands of the
Macedonians.