The Greek Trireme was the "state of the art" fighting ship designed to be able to cover long distances quickly under oar and sail, and in battle to ram enemy ships with devastating effect.

Money from the new vein of silver in Laurion enabled Athens to buy timber from Italy to increase her fleet from 40 in 489 BC to 200 in 480. The polis paid for the ship and its crew.  Equipment and repairs were paid for by a rich citizen as one of the liturgies.   

The Greek Trireme became famous in the Salamin battle (480 BC) in which they destroyed the superior Persian fleet. High speeds of triremes and a powerful force of their metal rams were the decisive factors. The Battle of Salamis was the decisive momentum shift that the Greek military had dream about. Without this victory, the Persian army would have marched across Greece; And the course of western civilization could have been very different.  Today's democracy wouldn't exist if there had been no Greek Trireme then.  

This  Greek Trireme features: