If the Trojan war happened, according to the Arundelian Marbles, 1209 years before Christ, this event must have been subsequent to the Argonautic expedition only about fifty years:  yet, in this short space of time, the Greeks had made great advances in the art of ship building, and in navigation.  The equipment of the Argonautic expedition was regarded, at the period it took place, as something almost miraculous; yet the ships sent against Troy seem to have excited little astonishment, though, considering the state of Greece at that period, they were very numerous.

It is foreign to our purpose to regard this expedition in any other light than as it is illustrative of the maritime skill and attainments of Greece at this era, and so far connected with our present subject.  The number of ships employed, according to Homer, amounted to 1186:  Thucydides states them at 1200; and Euripides, Virgil, and some other authors, reduce their number to 1000.  The ships of the Boeotians were the largest; they carried 120 men each; those of the Philoctetae were the smallest, each carrying only fifty men.  Agamemnon had 160 ships; the Athenians fifty; Menelaus, king of Sparta, sixty; but some of his ships seem to have been furnished by his allies; whereas all the Athenian vessels belonged to Athens alone.  We have already mentioned that Thucydides is contradicted by Homer, in his assertion that the Greek ships, at the siege of Troy, had no decks; perhaps, however, they were only half-decked, as it would appear, from the descriptions of them, that the fore-part was open to the keel:  they had a mainsail, and were rowed by oars.  Greece is so admirably situated for maritime and commercial enterprize, that it must have been very early sensible of its advantages in these respects.  The inhabitants of the isle of Egina are represented as the first people in Greece who were distinguished for their intelligence and success in maritime traffic:  soon after the return of the Heraclidae they possessed considerable commerce, and for a long time they are said to have held the empire of the adjoining sea.  Their naval power and commerce were not utterly annihilated till the time of Pericles.

The Corinthians, who are not mentioned by Homer as having engaged in the Trojan war, seem, however, not long afterwards, to have embarked with great spirit and success in maritime commerce; their situation was particularly favourable for it, and equally well situated to be the transit of the land trade of Greece.  Corinth had two ports, one upon each sea.  The Corinthians are said to have first built vessels with three banks of oars, instead of galleys.

Although the Athenians brought a considerable force against Troy, yet they did not engage in maritime commerce till long after the period of which we are at present treating.