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It chanced that some triremes were about to sail, a military force having to be despatched in haste. Now there was not in the dockyards equipment for the ships, but those from whom it was due, who had in their possession such equipment, had failed to return it; and furthermore there was not available for purchase in the Peiraeus either an adequate supply of sail-cloth and tow and cordage, which serve for the equipment of a trireme. Chaeridemus, therefore, proposed this decree, in order that the equipment for the ships might be recovered and kept safe for the state.
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(To the clerk. Read the decree, please.
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The Decree
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When this decree had been passed, the magistrates chose by lot those who owed the ship’s equipment to the state and handed over their names, and the overseers of the dockyards passed on the list to the trierarchs who were then about to sail, and to the overseers of the navy-boards. The law of PerianderThis law was passed in 538-537 B.C. forced us and laid command upon us to receive the list of those who owed equipment to the state,—I mean the law in accordance with which the navy-boards were constituted. And besides this another decree of the people compelled them to assign to us the several debtors that we might recover from each man his proportionate amount.
