Athenian nor the Aeginetan navy asserting clear dominance. In 483, the Athenians experienced a stroke of
good luck – or, as the Athenians would have seen it, a gift from the gods – that would improve their
position in their rivalry with Aegina and would, eventually, affect considerably their odds of withstanding
the Persian invasion. At the state-owned mine in southern Attica a new vein was discovered that yielded
some 2,600 kilograms of silver in the first year alone.
Some Athenian politicians, whose descendants are easily recognizable today, proposed that this windfall
be divided up and distributed equally among the citizens of Athens. Themistocles, however, managed to
persuade the Athenian assembly to invest these new resources in the construction of a new fleet of
TRIREMES (warships with three banks of oars). Triremes were the state-of-the-art naval weapon,
superior in speed and maneuverability to the old-fashioned warships with two banks of oarsmen that were
rapidly being superseded (figure 37). Speed and maneuverability were at this time the decisive factors in
naval engagements, which involved the need for ships to turn quickly and disable enemy vessels by
ramming them at the waterline with a bronze-clad wooden ram that projected from the ship’s prow (figure
38 ). In the three-year period that preceded the Persian invasion, the Athenians constructed 200 triremes,
financed by the revenues provided by the newly discovered lode of silver. Ostensibly, these ships were
intended for use against the Athenians’ Greek neighbors in Aegina, but they would prove invaluable at the
battle of Salamis against the Persians. In addition, as we will see in chapter 7, the Athenians’ commitment
to the development of their naval power was to have a decisive effect on the character of Athenian
political life throughout the fifth century.
Figure 37 Attic black-figure cup, showing warship with two banks of oars (right) about to ram a merchant
vessel; height of cup 8.4 cm, late sixth century BC. London, British Museum, Vases B 436.
Source: © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.