They struck a rich lode of silver on their Laurion pernisula, and instead of having a great public handout as happens today, they were persuuaded by far-seeing politicians to build a fleet of warships, and so were able to contribute greatly to the Greek effort in repelling the main Persian invasion ten years later.
order now
There's a specialist from your university waiting to help you with that essay.
Tell us what you need to have done now!
order now
After this they used the fleet to dominate the Mditerranean, and could have had a long happy future, but overstepped the mark and lost their empire (interestingly, the Persians gave the Spartan alliance the money to build a fleet to match the Athenian one).
