From the Greeks’ perspective the danger had now passed: the Persians had invaded, suffered defeat, and gone. So far as the Greeks were concerned, they could get back to fighting each other instead of a foreign enemy. A few years after Marathon, war broke out between Athens and Aegina. These two states were enemies from way back, and the events just before Marathon had only served to exacerbate matters. Aegina was a major naval power in those days and actually had the upper hand against the Athenians. Allegedly in 483, however, luck came to the Athenians’ aid.
In southeastern Attica lay silver mines, and in that year the Athenians discovered the richest lode of them all at Laureium. Suffering from a sudden embarassment of riches, the Athenians had little idea what to do with the silver. One idea was simply to distribute the money at the rate of ten drachmas per man. A politician called Themistocles - who, as Herodotus states, had recently come to prominence - argued, however, that the Athenians should use the money to construct a fleet of two hundred warships of the latest model, the trireme (see Figure 10.3) (Hdt. VII 144; [Arist.] Ath. Pol. 22,7 with date albeit with different details). Themistocles’ proposal carried the day, and the Athenians undertook to build a fleet of two hundred triremes - a fleet which, as it turned out, was ready just as the real Persian invasion began.
Figure 10.3 Modern reconstruction of an ancient trireme. Source: photo © Private Collection / Ancient Art and Architecture Collection Ltd. / Mike Andrews / The Bridgeman Art Library
World History
