your link gives this:

Athens supremacy at sea was founded upon her ability to utilise the trieres
as an effective weapon. She capitalised upon her role in the battle at
Salamis in 480 to win hegemony over some of her former allies. Thanks to the
encouragement of Themistokles, Athens had channelled the proceeds of a
windfall from the silver mines at Laurium into a fleet. They were designed
by Themistokles himself "for speed and quick handling" (Plutarch Cimon
12.2). Her fleet of 200 triereis were built before the second Persian
Invasion, for a naval war with Aegina, and enabled the Greeks to repel the
invasion successfully. After the repulsion of the Persians the naval forces
under Athenian command liberated the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the
offshore Islands, part of Cyprus and even invaded Egypt (Morrison and
Coates, 1986).

but how long did it take to build the 200 ships, ie from getting the silver
to Salamis 480?

"Justin Broderick" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
...


I'm interested in any time period from ancient Egypt to maybe Napoleon.
I'm just trying to get an order of magnitude informed guess.


I found this fascinating link:
http://www-atm.physics.ox.ac.uk/rowi...me/thesis.html

For reference, Kagan gives one drachma as a good day's pay for a skilled
Athenian craftsman, and there were 6000 drachmas in a silver talent.

--Justin