Ancient History | 482 BC

How Silver Saved Democracy

It's 482 BC and the fledgling democracy of Athens has struck a massive new vein of silver in one of their mines at Laurion.

The People Meet To Decide What To Do With The Silver Windfall

The people of Athens meet as a democracy to vote how they should use this huge silver bonanza. Many argue that it should go directly to the people with each citizen getting a huge windfall of silver tetradrachms. However, Themistocles, stands up and argues that they should instead use the money to build a fleet of 200 triremes so that Athens can dominate the seas.

Themistocles knows that Persia is an existential threat to their democracy. 10 years earlier the Persian king Darius had invaded Greece in an attempt to crush their democracy and had nearly succeeded until Greece's surprising victory at the battle of Marathon. Seeking revenge, Darius's son Xerxes is now in the process of gathering and equipping a huge army to crush Greece once and for all.

The People Vote To Build A Fleet

After hearing the arguments the people of Athens decide to forego the selfish choice of the personal windfall of giving everyone a share of the silver and instead they vote with Themistocles to build the fleet.

The Invasion

2 years later, Xerxes personally leads one of the largest armies that has ever been assembled to invade and conquer Greece. The Persian army is so large that it can easily conquer Greece.

The catch, though, to having such a big army out in another country is that you have to keep them supplied. A huge army requires huge amounts of food and supplies. If Persia can’t also dominate the seas, they won’t be able to maintain the supply lines they need to keep their huge army alive.

The silver is refined and minted into new silver coins. These coins are spent to build a new fleet of triremes for the Athenian Navy.

The fleet is built quickly and significantly boosts the naval strength of the Athenians.

This all happens none to soon, because . . .

The Battle of Salamis

In 480 BC the Persians meet the new Athenian fleet in the battle of Salamis. Even though the Greeks are vastly outnumbered, with the help of their new fleet of triremes, and due to Themistocles’ genius battle plan, the Greeks are able to defeat the Persian navy. This denied Xerxes control over the seas and without control over the seas, he is unable to supply such a huge army. Soon, Xerxes has to abandon his plan to conquer Greece.

The Athenian Democracy lived on. Athenian culture flourished and formed the foundation for much of what today constitutes western civilization.

If the Athenians hadn’t found that huge bonanza of silver when they did, the Persian navy would have almost certainly crushed the Greek navy. Athens, the birthplace of democracy, would have been destroyed, and democracy would have been destroyed with it. Thus, silver saved democracy.