22
That, I think, would be the best way of providing and organizing the money, the hulls, the trierarchs, and the calling in of the ships’ gear.The following table may make this paragraph clearer. Column A represents the totals, B the boards, C the groups. A B C No. of ships required 300 15 3 No. of ships required 200 10 2 No. of ships required 100 5 1 No. of trierarchs 1200 60 12 Capital represented (in talents) 6000 300 60
22
I now proceed to describe a clear and easy way of manning the ships. I suggest that the generals should divide the dockyards into ten areas, so arranging it that there may be dock-room in each for thirty ships, as close together as possible, and that when they have done this, they should apportion two boards and thirty galleys to each area, and then assign the tribes by lot to the areas.
23
And each brigade-commanderEach of the ten taxiarchs commanded the infantry belonging to his tribe. must divide into three parts whatever area his tribe has taken over, and the ships in the same way, and then he must allot the thirds of his tribe in such a way that of the whole space of the dockyards each tribe may have one area and each third of a tribe a third of an area; so that you can know at once, if necessary, where each tribe and each third of a tribe is stationed, who are the trierarchs and what ships they have, and that so each tribe may have thirty ships and each third of a tribe ten. For if we can only get this started, any detail at present omitted (for it is perhaps difficult to provide for everything) will be discovered by the actual working of the plan, and we shall have a uniform system both for the whole navy and for every part of it.
