A Day In Old Athens

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The Athenians will tell us that their citizen hoplites are a match
for any soldiers in Greece, except until lately the Spartans, and
now (since Leuctra) possibly the Thebans. But Corinthians, Argives,
Sicyonians, they can confront more readily. They will also add,
quite properly, that the army of Athens is in the main for home
defense. She does not claim to be a preeminently military state.
The glory of Athens has been the mastery of the sea. Our next
excursion must surely be to the Peireus.

Chapter XIV. The Peireus and the Shipping.

98. The "Long Walls" down to the Harbor Town.--It is some five
miles from the city to the Peireus, and the most direct route this
time lies down the long avenue laid between the Long Walls, and
running almost directly southwest.[*] The ground is quite level.
If we could catch glimpses beyond the walls, we would see fields,
seared brown perhaps by the summer sun, and here and there a
bright-kerchiefed woman gleaning among the wheat stubble. The two
walls start from Athens close together and run parallel for some
distance, then they gradually diverge so as to embrace within their
open angle a large part of the circumference of the Peireus. This
open space is built up with all kinds of shops, factories, and
houses, usually of the less aristocratic kind. In fact, all the
noxious sights and odors to be found in Athens seem tenfold multiplied
as we approach the Peireus.

[*]These were the walls whereof a considerable section was thrown
down by Lysander after the surrender of Athens [404 B.C.]. The
demolition was done to the "music of flute girls," and was fondly
thought by the victors to mean the permanent crippling of Athens,
and therefore "the first day of the liberty of Greece." In 393
B.C., by one of the ironies of history, Conon, an Athenian admiral,
but in the service of the king of Persia, who was then at war with
Sparta, appeared in the Peireus, and WITH PERSIAN MEN AND MONEY
rebuilt the walls amid the rejoicings of the Athenians.

The straight highroad is swarming with traffic: clumsy wagons are
bringing down marble from the mountains; other wains are headed
toward Athens with lumber and bales of foreign wares. Countless
donkeys laden with panniers are being flogged along. A great deal
of the carrying is done by half-naked sweating porters; for, after
all, slave-flesh is almost as cheap as beast-flesh. So by degrees
the two walls open away from us: before us now expands the humming
port town; we catch the sniff of the salt brine, and see the tangle
of spars of the multifarious shipping. Right ahead, however,
dominating the whole scene, is a craggy height,--the hill of Munychia,
crowned with strong fortifications, and with houses rising terrace
above terrace upon its slopes. At the very summit glitters in its
white marble and color work the temple of Artemis Munychia, the
guardian goddess of the port town and its citadel.[*]

[*]This fortress of Munychia, rather than the Acropolis in Athens
was the real citadel of Attica. It dominated the all-important
harbors on which the very life of the state depended.

99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens.--Making our way up a steep
lane upon the northwestern slope, we pass within the fortifications,
the most formidable near Athens. A band of young ephebi of
the garrison eye us as we enter; but we seem neither Spartans nor
Thebans and are not molested. From a convenient crag near the
temple, the whole scheme of the harbors of Athens is spread out
before us, two hundred and eighty odd feet below. Behind us is
the familiar plain of Athens with the city, the Acropolis, and the
guardian mountains. Directly west lies the expanse of roof of the
main harbor town, and then beyond is the smooth blue expanse of
the "Port of the Peireus," the main mercantile harbor of Athens.
Running straight down from Munychia, southwest, the land tapers off
into a rocky promontory, entirely girt with strong fortifications.
In this stretch of land are two deep round indentations. Cups
of bright water they seem, communicating with the outer sea only
by narrow entrances which are dominated by stout castles. "Zea"
is the name of the more remote; the "haven" of "Munychia" is that
which seems opening almost at our feet. These both are full of
the naval shipping, whereof more hereafter. To the eastward, and
stretching down the coast, is a long sandy beach whereon the blue
ripples are crumbling between the black fishing boats drawn up
upon the strand. This is Phaleron, the old harbor of Athens before
Themistocles fortified the "Peireus"--merely an open roadstead in
fact, but still very handy for small craft, which can be hauled up
promptly to escape the tempest.

100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia.--These are
the chief points in the harbors; but the view from Munychia is
most extensive. Almost everything in sight has its legend or its
story in sober history. Ten miles away to the southward rise the
red rocky hills of Aegina, Athens' old island enemy; and the tawny
headlands of the Argolic coasts are visible yet farther across he
horizon. Again as we follow the purplish ridge of Mount Aegaleos
as it runs down the Attic coast to westward, we come to a headland
then to a belt of azure water, about a mile wide, then the reddish
hills of an irregular island. Every idler on the citadel can tell
us all the story. On that headland on a certain fateful morning
sat Xerxes, lord of the Persians, with his sword-hands and mighty
men about him and his ships before him, to look down on the naval
spectacle and see how his slaves would fight. The island beyond
is "holy Salamis," and in this narrow strip of water has been
the battle which saved the life of Hellas. Every position in the
contest seems clearly in sight, even the insignificant islet of
Psytteleia, where Aristeides had landed his men after the battle,
and massacred the Persions stationed there "to cut off the Greeks
who tried to escape."

The water is indescribably blue, matching the azure of the sky.
Ships of all kinds under sails or oars are moving lightly over the
havens and the open Saronic bay. It is matchless spectacle--albeit
very peaceful. We now descend to the Peireus proper and examine
the merchant shipping and wharves, leaving the navy yards and the
fighting triremes till later.

101. The Town of Peireus.--The Peireus has all the life of the
Athenian Agora many times multiplied. Everywhere there is work
and bustle. Aristophanes has long since described the impression
it makes on strangers,[*]--sailors clamoring for pay, rations
being served out, figureheads being burnished, men trafficking for
corn, for onions, for leeks, for figs,--"wreaths, anchovies, flute
girls, blackened eyes, the hammering of oars from the dock yards,
the fitting of rowlocks, boatswains' pipes, fifes, and whistling."
There is such confusion one can hardly analyze one's surroundings.
However, we soon discover the Peireus has certain advantages over
Athens itself. The streets are much wider and are quite straight,[+]
crossing at right angles, unlike the crooked alleys of old Athens
which seem nothing but built-up cow trails. Down at the water
front of the main harbor ("the Peireus" harbor to distinguish it
from Zea and Munychia) we find about one third, nearest the entrance
passage and called the Cantharus, reserved for the use of the
war navy. This section is the famous "Emporium," which is such
a repository of foreign wares that Isocrates boasts that here one
can easily buy all those things which it is extremely hard to purchase
anywhere else in Hellas. Along the shore run five great stoas or
colonnades, all used by the traders for different purposes;--among
them are the Long Stoa (Makra' Stoa'), the "Deigma" (see section
78) used as a sample house by the wholesalers, and the great Corn
Exchange built by Pericles. Close down near the wharves stands also
a handsome and frequented temple, that of Athena Euploia (Athena,
Giver of good Voyages), to whom many a shipman offers prayer
ere hoisting sail, and many another comes to pay grateful vows
after surviving a storm.[&] Time fails us for mentioning all the
considerable temples farther back in the town. The Peireus in
short is a semi-independent community; with its shrines, its agoras,
its theaters, its court rooms, and other public buildings. The
population contains a very high percentage of metics, and downright
Barbarians,--indeed, long-bearded Babylonians, clean bronze Egyptians,
grinning Ethiopians, never awaken the least comment, they are so
familiar.

[*]"Acharn." 54 ff.

[+]Pericles employed the famous architect Hippodamus to lay out
the Peireus. It seems to have been arranged much like many of the
newer American cities.

[&]There seems to have been still another precinct, sacred to
"Zeus and Athena the Preservers," where it was very proper to offer
thanksgivings after a safe voyage.

102. The Merchant Shipping.--We can now cast more particular
eyes upon the shipping. Every possible type is represented. The
fishing craft just now pulling in with loads of shining tunnies
caught near Aegina are of course merely broad open boats, with only
a single dirty orange sail swinging in the lagging breeze. Such
vessels indeed depend most of the time upon their long oars. Also
just now there goes across the glassy surface of the harbor a slim
graceful rowing craft, pulling eight swiftly plying oars to a side.
She is a "Lembus:" probably the private cutter of the commandant
of the port. Generally speaking, however, we soon find that all
the larger Greek ships are divided into two categories, the "long
ships" and the "round ships." The former depend mainly on oars
and are for war; the latter trust chiefly to sail power and are
for cargo. The craft in the merchant haven are of course nearly
all of this last description.

Greeks are clever sailors. They never feel really happy at a great
distance from the sea which so penetrates their little country;
nevertheless, they have not made all the progress in navigation
which, considering the natural ingenuity of the race, might well
be expected. The prime difficulty is that Greek ships very seldom
have comfortable cabins. The men expect to sleep on shore every
night possible. Only in a great emergency, or when crossing an
exceptionally wide gulf or channel,[*] can a captain expect the
average crew to forego the privilege of a warm supper and bivouac
upon the strand. This means (since safe anchorages are by no means
everywhere) the ships must be so shallow and light they can often
be hauled up upon the beach. Even with a pretty large crew,
therefore, the limit to a manageable ship is soon reached; and
during the whole of the winter season all long-distance voyaging
has to be suspended; while, even in summer, nine sailors out of ten
hug close to the land, despite the fact that often the distance of
a voyage is thereby doubled.

[*]For example, the trip from Crete to Cyrene--which would be
demanded first, before coasting along to Egypt.

However, the ships at Peireus, if not large in size, are numerous
enough. Some are simply big open boats with details elaborated.
They have a small forecastle and poop built over, but the cargo in
the hold is exposed to all wind and weather. The propulsion comes
from a single unwieldy square sail swinging on a long yard the whole
length of the vessel. Other ships are more completely decked, and
depend on two square sails in the place of one. A few, however,
are real "deep sea" vessels--completely decked, with two or even
three masts; with cabins of tolerable size, and forward and aft
curious projections, like turrets,--the use whereof is by no means
obvious, but we soon gather that pirates still abound on the distant
seas, and that these turrets are useful when it comes to repelling
boarders. The very biggest of these craft run up to 250 gross tons
(later day register),[*] although with these ponderous defense-works
they seem considerably larger. The average of the ships, however,
will reckon only 30 to 40 tons or even smaller. It is really a
mistake, any garrulous sailor will tell us, to build merchant ships
much bigger. It is impossible to make sailing vessels of the Greek
model and rig sail very close to the wind; and in every contrary
breeze or calm, recourse must be had to the huge oars pile up along
the gunwales. Obviously it is weary work propelling a large ship
with oars unless you have a huge and expensive crew,--far better
then to keep to the smaller vessels.

[*]The Greeks reckoned their ships by their capacity in talents
(= about 60 lbs.), e.g. a ship of 500 talents, of 2000, or (among
the largest) 10,000.

103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship House.--Many other points
about these "round ships" interest us; but such matters they share
with the men-of-war, and our inspection has now brought us to the
navy yard. There are strictly three separate navy yards, one at
each of the harbors of Munychia, Zea, and Cantharus, for the naval
strength of Athens is so great that it is impossible to concentrate
the entire fleet at one harbor. Each of these establishments is
protected by having two strong battlements or breakwaters built
out, nearly closing the respective harbor entrances. At the end of
each breakwater is a tower with parapets for archers, and capstans
for dragging a huge chain across the harbor mouth, thus effectively
sealing the entrance to any foe.[*] The Zea haven has really the
greatest warship capacity, but the Cantharus is a good type for
the three.[+] As we approach it from the merchant haven, we see
the shelving shore closely lined with curious structures which do
not easily explain themselves. There are a vast number of dirty,
shelving roofs, slightly tilted upward towards the land side, and
set at right angles to the water's edge. They are each about 150
feet long, some 25 feet wide, about 20 feet high, and are set up side
by side with no passage between. On close inspection we discover
these are ship houses. Under each of the roofs is accommodated the
long slim hull of a trireme, kept safe from sea and weather until
the time of need, when a few minutes' work at a tackle and capstan
will send it down into harbor, ready to tow beside a wharf for
outfitting.

[*]Ancient harbors were much harder to defend than modern ones,
because there was no long-range artillery to prevent an enemy from
thrusting into an open haven among defenseless shipping.

[+]Zea had accommodation for 196 triremes, Munychia, 82, and the
Cantharus, 94.

104. The Great Naval Arsenal.--The ship houses are not the only
large structures at the navy yard. Here is also the great naval
arsenal, a huge roofed structure open at the sides and entirely
exposed to public inspection. Here between the lines of supporting
columns can be seen stacked up the staple requisites for the
ships,--great ropes, sail boxes, anchors, oars, etc. Everybody
in Athens is welcome to enter and assure himself that the fleet
can be outfitted at a minute's notice[*]; and at all times crews
of half-naked, weather-beaten sailors are rushing hither and yon,
carrying or removing supplies to and from the wharves where their
ships are lying.

[*]This arsenal was replaced a little later than the hypothetical
time of this narrative by one designed by the famous architect,
Philo. It was extremely elegant as well as commodious, with handsome
columns, tiled roofs, etc. In 360 B.C., however, the arsenal seems
to have been a strictly utilitarian structure.

105. An Athenian Triearch.--Among this unaristocratic crowd we
observe a dignified old gentleman with an immaculate himation and
a long polished cane. Obsequious clerks and sailing masters are
hanging about him for his orders; it is easy to see that he is a
TRIERARCH--one of the wealthiest citizens on whom it fell, in turn,
at set intervals, to provide the less essential parts of a trireme's
outfit, and at least part of the pay for the crew for one year,
and to be generally responsible for the efficiency and upkeep of
the vessel.[*] This is a year of peace, and the patriotic pressure
to spend as much on your warship as possible is not so great as
sometimes; still Eustatius, the magnate in question, knows that he
will be bitterly criticized (nay, perhaps prosecuted in the courts)
if he does not do "the generous thing." He is therefore ordering
an extra handsome figurehead; promising a bonus to the rowing master
if he can get his hands to row in better rhythm than the ordinary
crew; and directing that wine of superior quality be sent aboard for
the men.[+] It will be an anxious year in any case for Eustathius.
He has ill wishers who will watch carefully to see if the vessel
fails to make a creditable record for herself during the year, and
whether she is returned to the ship house or to the next trierarch
in a state of good repair. If the craft does not then appear
seaworthy, her last outfitter may be called upon to rebuild her
completely, a matter which will eat up something like a talent.
Public service therefore does not provide beds of roses for the
rich men of Athens.

[*]Just how much of the rigging and what fraction of the pay
of the crew the government provided is by no means clear from our
evidence. It is certain that a public-spirited and lavish trierarch
could almost ruin himself (unless very wealthy) during the year he
was responsible for the vessel.

[+]According to various passages in Demosthenes, the cost of
a trierachy for a year varied between 40 mine (say $540 [1914 or
$9,304.20 in 2000]) and a talent (about $1000 [1914 or $17,230 in
2000]), very large sums for Athenians. The question of the amount
of time spent in active service in foreign waters would of course
do much to determine the outlay.

Eustathius goes away towards one of the wharves, where his trireme,
the "Invincible," is moored with her crew aboard her. Let us
examine a typical Athenian warship.

106. The Evolution of the Trireme.--The genesis of the trireme
was the old PENTECONTER ("fifty-oar ship") which, in its prime
features, was simply a long, narrow, open hull, with slightly raised
prow and stern cabins, pulling twenty-five oars to a side. There
are a few penteconters still in existence, though the great naval
powers have long since scorned them. It was a good while before
the battle of salamis that the Greek sea warriors began to feel the
need of larger warships. It was impossible to continue the simple
scheme of the penteconter. To get more oars all on one tier you
must make a longer boat, but you could not increase the beam, for,
if you did, the whole craft would get so heavy that it would not
row rapidly; and the penteconter was already so long in relation
to its beam as to be somewhat unsafe. A device was needed to get
more oars into the water without increasing the length over much.
The result was the BIREME (two-banker) which was speedily replaced
by the still more efficient TRIREME (three-banker), the standard
battleship of all the Greek navies.[*]

[*]By the end of the fourth century B.C., vessels with four and
five banks of oars (quadriremes and quinqueremes) had become the
regular fighting ships, but they differed probably only in size,
not in principle, from the trireme.

107. The Hull of a Trireme.--The "Invincible" has a hull of fir
strengthened by a solid oak keel, very essential if she is to be hauled
up frequently. Her hull is painted black, but there is abundance
of scarlet, bright blue, and gilding upon her prow, stern, and
upper works. The slim hull itself is about 140 feet long, 14 feet
wide, and rides the harbor so lightly as to show it draws very little
water; for the warship, even more perhaps than the merchantman, is
built on the theory that her crew must drag her up upon the beach
almost every night.

While we study the vessel we are soon told that, although triremes
have been in general use since, say, 500 B.C., nevertheless the
ships that fought at Salamis were decidedly simpler affairs than
those of three generations later. In those old "aphract" vessels
the upper tier of rowers had to sit exposed on their benches with
no real protection from the enemy's darts; but in the new "cataphract"
ships like the "Invincible" there is a stout solid bulwark built up
to shield the oarsmen from hostile sight and missiles alike. All
this makes the ships of Demosthene's day much handsomer, taller
affairs than their predecessors which Themistocles commanded;
nevertheless the old and the new triremes have most essentials in
common. The day is far off when a battleship twenty years old will
be called "hopelessly obsolete" by the naval critics.[*]

[*]There is some reason for believing that an Athenian trireme was
kept in service for many years, with only incidental repairs, and
then could still be counted as fit to take her place in the line
of battle.

The upper deck of the trireme is about eleven feet above the harbor
waves, but the lowest oar holes are raised barely three feet. Into
the intervening space the whole complicated rowing apparatus has
to be crammed with a good deal of ingenuity. Running along two
thirds of the length of the hull nearly the whole interior of the
vessel is filled with a series of seats and foot rests rising in
sets of three. Each man has a bench and a kind of stool beneath
him, and sits close to a porthole. The feet of the lowest rower
are near the level of the water line; swinging two feet above him
and only a little behind him is his comrade of the second tier;
higher and behind in turn is he of the third.[*] Running down
the center of the ship on either side of these complicated benches
is a broad, central gangway, just under the upper deck. Here the
supernumeraries will take refuge from the darts in battle, and here
the regular rowers will have to do most of their eating, resting,
and sleeping when they are not actually on the benches or on shore.

[*]The exact system by which these oar benches were arranged, the
crew taught to swing together (despite the inequalities in the
length of their oars), and several other like problems connected
with the trireme, have received no satisfactory solution by modern
investigators. [Note from Brett: Between 1985 and 1987 John
Morrison and John Coates oversaw a reproduction of a trireme which
has an excellent study of bench arrangements and several other
problems connected with the trireme were likely solved.]

108. The Rowers' Benches of a Trireme.--With her full complement
of rowers the benches of the "Invincible" fairly swarm with life.
There are 62 rowers to the upper tier (thranites), 58 for the middle
tier (zygites), and 54 for the lower (thalamites), each man with
his own individual oar. The TRHANITES with the longest oars (full
13 feet 6 inches) have the hardest pull and the largest pay, but
not one of the 174 oarsmen holds a sinecure. In ordinary cruising,
to be sure, the trireme will make use of her sails, to help out a
single bank of oars which must be kept going almost all the time.
Even then it is weary work to break your back for a couple of hours
taking your turn on the benches. But in battle the trireme almost
never uses sails. She becomes a vast, many-footed monster, flying
over the foam; and the pace of the three oar banks, swinging
together, becomes maddening. Behind their bulwarks the rowers can
see little of what is passing. Everything is dependent upon their
rowing together in absolute rhythm come what may, and giving instant
obedience to orders. The trireme is in one sense like a latter-day
steamer in her methods of propulsion; but the driving force is 174
straining, panting humans, not insensate water vapor and steel.

109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme.--Forward and aft of
the rowers' benches and the great central gangway are the fore and
stern cabins. They furnish something akin to tolerable accommodations
for the officers and a favored fraction of the crew. Above the
forecastle rises a carved proudly curing prow, and just abaft it
are high bulwarks to guard the javelin men when at close quarters
with the foe. There is also on either side of the prow a huge red
or orange "eye" painted around the hawse holes for the anchors.
Above the stern cabin is the narrow deck reserved for the pilot,
the "governor" of the ship, who will control the whole trireme with
a touch now on one, now on the other, of the huge steering paddles
which swing at the sides near the stern. Within the stern cabin
itself is the little altar, sacred to the god or goddess to whom
the vessel is dedicated, and on which incense will be burned before
starting on a long cruise and before going into battle. Two masts
rise above the deck, a tall mainmast nearly amidships, and a much
smaller mast well forward. On each of these a square sail (red,
orange, blue, or even, with gala ships, purple) will be swung from
a long yard, while the vessel is cruising; but it is useless to set
sails in battle. One could never turn the ship quickly enough to
complete the maneuvers. The sails and yards will ordinarily be
sent ashore as the first measure when the admiral signals "clear
ship for action."

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