Persian Invasion of 480 BC - articles

[Aryaman2]

I agree with the Plague factor (but by 415, according to Thucydides 6.26, the city had already recovered), but you will agree with me that the general resources of Athens were greater then than in Marathon times. About the expedition to Sicily that year Thucydides said "Indeed this armament that first sailed out was by far the most costly and splendid Hellenic force that had ever been sent out by a single city up to that time" (6.31) so large that they were forced to "dividing the whole fleet into three divisions, allotted one to each of their number, to avoid sailing all together and being thus embarrassed for water, harbourage, or provisions at the stations which they might touch at, and at the same time to be generally better ordered and easier to handle" (6.42) yet the whole force was 5.100 strong. Thucydides gives a very detailed information about its composition "consisting of one hundred and thirty-four galleys in all (besides two Rhodian fifty-oars) of which one hundred were Athenian vessels--sixty men-of-war, and forty troopships--and the remainder from Chios and the other allies; five thousand and one hundred heavy infantry in all, that is to say, fifteen hundred Athenian citizens from the rolls at Athens and seven hundred Thetes shipped as marines, and the rest allied troops, some of them Athenian subjects, and besides these five hundred Argives, and two hundred and fifty Mantineans serving for hire; four hundred and eighty archers in all, eighty of whom were Cretans, seven hundred slingers from Rhodes, one hundred and twenty light-armed exiles from Megara, and one horse-transport carrying thirty horses" (6.43) Note that only 2.200, including Thetes, so less than half. It is difficult to imagine how in the times of Marathon Athens could have mustered so many non Athenians in his army
To sum up, it is probably the best documented army strength of the period, on Thucydides account the largest force ever assembled by greek city, and you can see the number