17.
At the time when the fleet was at sea, the Athenians had the largest number of ships
which they1 ever had all together, effective and in good trim, although the mere number was
as large or even larger at the commencement of the war.
[2]
For then there were a hundred which guarded Attica, Euboea, and Salamis, and another
hundred which were cruising off Peloponnesus2, not including the ships employed in blockading Potidaea and at other places; so
that in one and the same summer their fleet in all numbered two hundred and fifty.
[3]
This and the money spent in the war against Potidaea was the chief call upon their
treasury.
[4]
Every one of the hoplites engaged in the siege received two drachmae3 a-day, one for himself, and one for his servant; the original force amounted to
three thousand4, and this number was maintained as long as the siege lasted.
Sixteen hundred more came with Phormio, but went away before the end5.
The sailors in the fleet all received the same pay as the soldiers.
So great was the drain on the resources of the Athenians in the early part of the war,
and such was the largest number of ships which they ever manned.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
This text was converted to electronic form by optical character recognition and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.