How much did a ship cost in Ancient Greece?
Upvote:3
The common consensus by both ancient writers and modern is that it took about 1-2 talents of silver to field a ship.
However, the operational costs of a ship were generally greatly in excess of the costs just to build it.
For example, in the Samian War the Athenians demanded an indemnity of 1300 talents to re-imburse them for the costs of the war and the Athenians fielded 60 ships for 9 months in that war. So, that would be at least 20 talents per year per ship. This would indicate the operational costs were a lot higher than the ship building costs.
A silver talent equates to roughly $750,000 now in wage earning power.
For example, a 150-200 man crew of a trireme might be paid 1 talent per month. So, at $750,000 per talent that would be $3,750 per month per man or $45,000 per year which is about what the average Navy sailor makes right now.
Thus, the modern equivalent of the 60-ship Samian war would be 1300 x $750,000 = $9.75 billion dollars
Upvote:7
As has been stated also by others, the real cost of a navy was not the construction cost, but the operating cost. According to Thucydides, the operating cost in 5th century Athens amounted to one silver talent per trireme per month, which is approximately 25 kilograms of silver per month.
This is mentioned in Thucydides VI, 8.1 when in the spring of 415, Athenian envoys, together with Egestean representatives returned from Sicily bringing 60 talents of silver for one months pay to 60 Athenian triremes (ἑξήκοντα τάλαντα ἀσήμου ἀργυρίου ὡς ἐς ἑξήκοντα ναῦς μηνὸς μισθόν).
When describing the Athenian fleet about to embark on the major Sicilian expedition, Thucydides VI, 31.3 explicitly mentions that the daily wage paid by the Athenian state to each seaman amounted one (silver) drachma (τοῦ μὲν δημοσίου δραχμὴν τῆς ἡμέρας τῷ ναύτῃ ἑκάστῳ διδόντος). This squares nicely with the overall monthly cost of one talent per trireme per month, considering that each trireme had a crew of approximately 200 and that one talent = 6,000 drachmas.
Please bear in mind that Thucydides was himself (if only briefly) an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War in command of a small fleet of triremes, so his testimony is as reliable as one could hope for.
I have found the BA dissertation by Rosemary Peck to provide good discussion and an excellent collection of additional reading on this subject.
Upvote:12
Wikipedia, after Hanson (2006), claims that a typical trireme took 6,000 man days to complete. If you take a 25 man crew as around the optimal size, balancing the ease of performing certain tasks against the non-linear aspects of managing large teams, that would equate to 240 days effort, or perhaps 9 months elapsed time allowing for days off, bad weather, etc.
Certainly one single trireme could be built faster with a larger crew, at the cost of efficiency, but to construct a fleet one would desire to have the optimal crew size working on each ship. The quality of the finished vessel would be affected by whether or not the wood had been seasoned a full two years before construction started.
Upvote:18
Two talents may confidently be assumed, [...] as a moderate estimate of the cost of both hull and rigging of a trireme. (p. 364)
Newer authors (relying, as far as I can tell from a very cursory examination, upon basically the same literary sources as Robbins and his authorities) seem to stay in the same ballpark.
An Attic talent was equal to 6000 drachmas and since wiki tells us that, "According to wage rates from 377 BC, a talent was the value of nine man-years of skilled work.", this tallies quite well with the answer given by @Pieter Geerkens.
More post
- 📝 Emigration restrictions in history
- 📝 What is the difference between "diallektes" and "aesymnetes"?
- 📝 Did a US Territory Gaining Statehood by Itself Bestow Citizenship to Anyone Who Was Present?
- 📝 Who's this Egyptian woman?
- 📝 Why didn't Japan attack communist China in WW2?
- 📝 Is the entire history, we read, accurate?
- 📝 Who were the candidates in the consular elections for 80 BC in Rome?
- 📝 Did Averroes really try to bury light in an attempt to create gold, or was that invented by Victor Hugo?
- 📝 Did Jefferson really say this quote about patriotism?
- 📝 Aircraft identification
- 📝 Did the Roman legions wear this type of boots?
- 📝 What did the Soviets know about the Hunger Plan during WWII?
- 📝 How much did a ship cost in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 What is the source for Diogenes' quote in Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy?
- 📝 Why did non prosecuted craftsmen go to the new world in the Roanoke era?
- 📝 18th-century land surveyors Valentine and Collins
- 📝 Where did Theophrastus write about a "a common chest" into which funds are placed in case of a member's hardship?
- 📝 Were covered wagons used on the Federal Road in North GA in the early 1830's?
- 📝 Was Russo-Polish of 1919-1920 a war of independence?
- 📝 What are the three major differences between the first and second silk road?
- 📝 Chinese legendary figures with European appearance
- 📝 What is the significance of "Pharaoh" versus "King" in ancient Egypt?
- 📝 Who was the last European king to actively engage in combat?
- 📝 What would have happened had Stalin not had the Siberian forces help?
- 📝 Where does Lincoln say the South wants us to believe as they believe?
- 📝 Are there examples of well known medieval battles with very little archaeological evidence?
- 📝 How was agricultural labour organised in Victorian England?
- 📝 Specialization of labor among the ancient Maya
- 📝 Was "The war to end all wars" viewed as cynically during WW1 as it is today?
- 📝 Were there mercenaries around for WWI?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How much did a ship cost in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 How much did a transatlantic telegram cost in 1914?
- 📝 How much did it cost to buy a ticket on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul in 1914?
- 📝 How much did a sword cost in AD 1000 Constantinople?
- 📝 How much did a telephone call cost in the USA around 1920?
- 📝 How much did a good sword cost in Medieval Western Europe?
- 📝 How much did helping the American Revolution cost France?
- 📝 How much did it cost to maintain Gustavus Adolphus' army? How much of it was paid by Richelieu?
- 📝 How much did gunpowder cost per barrel in 1605 in London?
- 📝 How much did the Chinese Summer Palace cost to build?
- 📝 How much of a effect did linguistic relativism play in ancient Europe?
- 📝 How much did food cost in Babylon?
- 📝 How much was cost for a regular (standard class) passenger to come on passenger ship from Liverpool England to Canada between 1906-1908
- 📝 How much did cannon cost in 1410?
- 📝 How much did revolvers cost in Victorian England?
- 📝 How Much Did World War Two Cost Financially?
- 📝 How did people distinguish slaves from free people in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 How did they cook on ancient ships?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
- 📝 When did the term "Nationality" first come into use? How did ancient civilizations refer to themselves? By ethnicity?
- 📝 How much did J. Robert Oppenheimer get paid while overseeing the Manhattan Project?
- 📝 How did ancient empires account for slow propagation of information e.g. in their legal codes?
- 📝 How did Christianity replace Roman Paganism and other ancient religions?
- 📝 How did Greece avoid the Soviet sphere of influence?
- 📝 How much tax did Romans pay?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 How did ancient armies keep the route of supplies to their battlefield?
- 📝 How did ancient Roman family names survive to current day use?