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1. The Origin of the Trierarchy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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O N E The Origin of the Trierarchy As is the case with other Athenian institutions, the origin and early history of the trierarchy are fundamentally important but poorly documented . Hence their particulars remain—and unless entirely fresh evidence comes to view they will continue to remain—not susceptible to sturdy proof. Yet it seems possible and necessary to test the validity of the main hypotheses that have been advanced in this area, and to formulate new ones insofar as these are shown to be consistent both with the existing but limited body of evidence and with the general conceptual framework set out in the Introduction. The question of origin implies treatment of two sets of problems. One is whether or not the trierarchy can justifiably be viewed as the direct (or indirect) successor of the naukrariai , an institution of the sixth century B.C., or perhaps even earlier. Another is the date and circumstances of the inception of the trierarchy itself. The Naukrariai and the Athenian Fleet Prior to the final years of the 4805 the Athenian navy was comparatively small. According to Thucydides' reckoning of the early naval powers (1.13-14), Athens's fleet in this early period was dwarfed by those at the disposal of other Greek city-states such as Corinth, Korkyra, and Samos. Moreover, it did not as yet mainly consist of the superior man-of-war already in use elsewhere, the trieres. For many years it has been widely believed that the administration and finance of Athenian warships, in the time before the acquisition of a large fleet by 480, was the responsibility of the institution known as the naukrariai. The essentials of this view can be summarized as follows. In the sixth century, and perhaps earlier, there were forty-eight naukrariai forming subdivisions (twelve to each) of the old four tribes. Each naukraria was presided over by an official, zprytanes, and comprised wealthy citizens, the naukraroi, who, by virtue of performing a liturgy, supplied, maintained, and commanded the Athenian ships and crews. With Kleisthenes' democratic reforms of 508/7 the system was reorganized by increasing the number of naukrariai to fifty and transferring the duties of the naukraroi to the demarchs, the head officials of the Attic municipalities (demes). But the naval obligations of the institution were retained until Themistokles' institution of the trierarchy in 483/2.1 Some have proposed an analogy between such a system and the "wardens of ports" of medieval England who were liable to supply ships as a tax in kind, or the chartering of private ships by the early modern French navy.2 However, the validity of this prevailing view about the naval duties of the naukrariai and the existence of the liturgy system before 508/7 can now be questioned with a force sufficient to suggest that it be abandoned altogether. A thorough examination of the problem suggests that there is no firm evidence for the connection between naukrariai and fleet, thus justifying the earlier verdict of B. Keil: "Wo die Flotte, Keine Spur der Naukrarien; wo die Naukrarie, Keine Spur die Flotte."3 A brief review of the principal sources and arguments that have been adduced in support of the traditional theory may expose its inadequacies. (i) On this particular topic the archaeological evidence proves unhelpful . It has been customary to identify the ships depicted on a group of Athenian vases from the Geometric period (roughly 760-735 B.C.), the so-called Dipylon group, with those supplied by the naukrariai. But this is as much a guess (and, indeed, the cause of a circular argument) as is a similar identification of the trieres depicted on a fifth-century marble carving, the Lenormant relief, with the sacred ship Paralos.4 (ii) The earliest extant reference to the naukraroi in the literary sources is found in Herodotos. However, his account is too brief to provide anything near an adequatedescription of their specific functions, and the precise meaning of his words is now debated. In his account of KyT H E E S T A B L I S H M E N T O F T H E I N S T I T U T I O N 2O [54.210.83.20] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:01 GMT) Ion's attempt to seize power at Athens through an unsuccessful coup (possibly in the period 640/39-621/0), Herodotos writes: "Then he [sc. Kylon] and his men were expelled by theprytanies...