TRIĒRARCHĬA (τριήραρχια), one of the extraordinary war services or
liturgies at Athens, the object of which was to provide for the
equipment and maintenance of the ships of war belonging to the
state. The persons who were charged with it were called trierarchs
(τριήραρχοι), as being the captains of triremes, though the name
was also applied to persons who bore the same charge in other
vessels. It existed from very early times in connection with the
forty-eight naucraries of Solon, and the fifty of Clisthenes: each
of which corporations appears to have been obliged to equip and man
a vessel. [NAUCRARIA.] Under the constitution of Clisthenes the
ten tribes were at first severally charged with five vessels. This
charge was of course superseded by the later forms of the hierarchy.
The state furnished the ship, and either the whole or part of the
ship’s rigging and furniture, and also pay and provisions for the
sailors. The trierarchs were bound to keep in repair the ship and its
furniture, and were frequently put to great expense in paying the
sailors and supplying them with provisions, when the state did not
supply sufficient money for the purpose. Moreover, some trierarchs,
whether from ambitious or patriotic motives, put themselves to
unnecessary expense in fitting out and rigging their ships, from
which the state derived an advantage. The average expense of the
trierarchy was 50 minae. In ancient times one person bore the whole
charge of the trierarchy, afterwards it was customary for two persons
to share it, who were then called _syntrierarchs_ (συντριήραρχοι).
When this practice was first introduced is not known, but it was
perhaps about the year 412 B.C., after the defeat of the Athenians
in Sicily, when the union of two persons for the choregia was first
permitted. The syntrierarchy, however, did not entirely supersede
the older and single form, being only meant as a relief in case of
emergency, when there was not a sufficient number of wealthy citizens
to bear the expense singly. In the case of a syntrierarchy the two
trierarchs commanded their vessel in turn, six months each, according
as they agreed between themselves.--The third form of the trierarchy
was connected with, or suggested by, the syntrierarchy. In B.C. 358,
the Athenians were unable to procure a sufficient number of legally
appointed trierarchs, and accordingly they summoned volunteers. This,
however, was but a temporary expedient; and as the actual system
was not adequate to the public wants, they determined to manage the
trierarchy somewhat in the same way as the property-tax (_eisphora_),
namely, by classes or symmoriae, according to the law of Periander
passed in B.C. 358, and which was the primary and original enactment
on the subject. With this view 1200 _synteleis_ (συντελεῖς) or
partners were appointed, who were probably the wealthiest individuals
of the state, according to the census or valuation. These were
divided into 20 _symmoriae_ (συμμορίαι) or classes; out of which
a number of persons (σώματα) joined for the equipment or rather
the maintenance and management of a ship, under the title of a
_synteleia_ (συντέλεια) or union. To every ship there was generally
assigned a _synteleia_ of fifteen persons of different degrees of
wealth, as we may suppose, so that four ships only were provided
for by each symmoria of sixty persons. It appears, however, that
before Demosthenes carried a new law on this subject (B.C. 340), it
had been customary for _sixteen_ persons to unite in a synteleia or
company for a ship, who bore the burden in equal shares. This being
the case, it follows either that the members of the symmoriae had
been by that time raised from 1200 to 1280, or that some alterations
had taken place in their internal arrangements, of which no account
has come down to us. The superintendence of the whole system was in
the hands of the 300 wealthiest members, who were therefore called
the “leaders of the symmoriae” (ἡγεμόνες τῶν συμμοριῶν), on whom
the burdens of the trierarchy chiefly fell, or rather ought to have
fallen. The services performed by individuals under this system
appear to have been the same as before: the state still provided
the ship’s tackle, and the only duty then of the trierarchs under
this system was to keep their vessels in the same repair and order
as they received them. But even from this they managed to escape:
for the wealthiest members, who had to serve for their synteleia,
let out their trierarchies for a talent, and received that amount
from their partners (συντελεῖς), so that in reality they paid next
to nothing, or, at any rate, not what they ought to have done,
considering that the trierarchy was a ground of exemption from
other liturgies.--To remedy these abuses Demosthenes carried a law
when he was the ἐπιστάτης τοῦ ναυτικοῦ, or the superintendent of
the Athenian navy, thereby introducing the _Fourth form_ of the
trierarchy. The provisions of the law were as follows: The naval
services required from every citizen were to depend upon and be
proportional to his property, or rather to his taxable capital, as
registered for the symmoriae of the property-tax, the rate being
one trireme for every ten talents of taxable capital, up to three
triremes and one auxiliary vessel (ὑπηρέσιον) for the largest
properties; _i.e._ no person, however rich, could be required to
furnish more. Those who had not ten talents in taxable capital were
to club together in synteleiae till they had made up that amount.
By this law great changes were effected. All persons paying taxes
were rated in proportion to their property, so that the poor were
benefited by it, and the state likewise: for, as Demosthenes says,
those who had formerly contributed one-sixteenth to the trierarchy of
one ship were now trierarchs of two, in which case they must either
have served by proxy, or done duty in successive years. He adds, that
the consequences were highly beneficial. We do not know the amount
of property which rendered a man liable to serve a trierarchy or
syntrierarchy, but we read of no instance of liability arising from
a property of less value than 500 minae. The appointment to serve
under the first and second forms of the trierarchy was made by the
strategi, and in case any person was appointed to serve a trierarchy,
and thought that any one else (not called upon) was better able
to bear it than himself, he offered the latter an exchange of his
property [ANTIDOSIS] subject to the burden of the trierarchy. In
cases of extreme hardship, persons became suppliants to the people,
or fled to the altar of Artemis at Munychia. If not ready in time,
they were sometimes liable to imprisonment. On the contrary, whoever
got his ship ready first was to be rewarded with the “crown of
the trierarchy;” so that in this way considerable emulation and
competition were produced. Moreover, the trierarchs were ὑπεύθυνοι,
or liable to be called to account for their expenditure; though they
applied their own property to the service of the state. It has been
already stated that the trierarchy was a ground of exemption from the
other liturgies, any of which, indeed, gave an exemption, from all
the rest during the following year.