[181] The actual boundary stone of the mercantile port of the Piræeus, of the date of the Peloponnesian war, was found in situ in 1842 (Ulrich’s Athen. 1843). Themistocles planned, and Pericles carried out the building of this port-town (Paus. i. 1; Schol. Arist. Equit. 974; ibid. 547).
[182] The few following facts are, perhaps, worth recording. Thus, an oar cost 5 drachmæ (Andoc. p. 81); and Lucian, Dial. de Mort. 4, charges the anchor for Charon’s boat at 3 dr. The tropoter cost 2 obols; a needle for sewing the sail, 3 obols; and the pitch, wax, nails, &c., 2 drachmæ more. Again, Demosthenes speaks of a bottomry bond of 3000 drachmæ; and Polyænus states, generally, that a ship cost a talent. Usually the State found the hull, and the trierarch the fittings. In the naval service the pay and the provisions were generally joined together: 20 minæ was good pay for a month, and the complement of a trireme about 200 men; the proportion of sailors, rowers, and fighting men varying considerably at different times. The thranitæ got the best pay (Arnold’s note, Thucyd. vi. 43). The whole equipment of shipping (for war) was under the control of trierarchs (Böckh, Publ. Economy of Athens, bk. iv. c. 11).
[183] Herodotus, book viii. ch. 1 and 2.
[184] Herodotus, book vii. ch. 185.
[185] Ibid. book viii. ch. 17.
[186] This Clinias, who was killed at the battle of Coronæa, in B.C. 447, was the father of the famous Alcibiades. Plut. Alcib.
[187] Herod. vii. 184.
[188] Herod. vii. 190.
[189] Ibid. vii. 188.
[190] Some ancient, as well as many modern writers, have questioned the story of this canal (Cf. Juvenal, x. 173, 174); but later researches have shown that there are undoubted remains of this great work. Captain Spratt, R.N., has surveyed it thoroughly, and has published an account and map thereof in the “Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc.” v. 17. The canal now forms a line of ponds, from 2 to 8 feet deep, and from 60 to 90 broad, extending from sea to sea. It is cut through tertiary sands, which would naturally fall in, as Herodotus states (vii. 23). Previously to Spratt, the genuineness of this work had been maintained by Choiseul-Gouffier, Voy. Pittor. ii. i. 148; Colonel Leake, “Northern Greece,” ii. 145; and Sir George Bowen, “Athos,” p. 57. Moreover, we can hardly fancy that Herodotus could be in error about a work of such magnitude, and executed only thirty-six years before he publicly read his history at the Olympic Games, B.C. 445.