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| Ancient History
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| Please click on the various historical events listed on
the time line for more information. Please also note the two sub-menus
opened under the menu Ancient History to the left.
In the early fifth century BC, the vast Persian Empire set out to conquer the Greek world, and the growing conflict resulted in the Persian Wars. Themistocles, the leading statesman of the time, was convinced that the future of Athens lay at sea. He built a large fleet and a fortified naval harbour as a defence against the Persian threat. This fleet was to be based in the Piraeus, the harbour city of Athens. We do not know exactly when Zea became a naval harbour, but it is reasonable to believe that the shipsheds in Zea housed some of the triremes financed by large amounts of silver found in the Laurion mines in 483/482 BC, as well as a number of the warships of the Delian League in the period from 478 BC onwards. The shipsheds in the Piraeus were demolished by the Thirty Tyrants after the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. During the fourth century BC, the shipsheds were rebuilt. Zea, being the largest naval harbour in the Piraeus, had a total of 196 shipsheds. In the struggle for power that followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Athens tried to regain her position as a major naval power. The Macedonians finally defeated the Athenians in the naval battle of Amorgos in 322 BC. During the First Mithridatic War in 88-86 BC between Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontos and Rome, Athens sided with Mithridates. In 86 BC the Piraeus was besieged and sacked by the Roman general Sulla. However, Zea continued to function as a naval harbour. According to the writer Pausanias, there were still shipsheds in the Piraeus in the second century AD. Further reading: |
