This portico (technically called the Deigma, or Show-Place) was in fact the Royal Exchange of Athens, where her merchants transacted business with those of Syria and of Asia Minor, who resorted thither in great numbers; and though Athenian commerce, even at its best times, was small when compared with that of Tyre, Carthage, or Miletus, Athenian merchants held a high position in ancient times.[181] But, if commercially inferior to some other states, Athens maintained the highest rank among the naval cities of the ancient world, though it is difficult from such records as still exist to determine either the size or the number of the vessels belonging to her or to other Greek states.[182] [Sidenote: The size of her ships as described by Herodotus.] The superiority of Athens was, however, due to political rather than commercial causes; and her people were chiefly famed for their daring and prowess as warriors at sea. To the Athenians, Greece was mainly indebted for her freedom from the Persian yoke. It was the Athenian fleet that resisted successfully the gigantic navy of Xerxes; and the description of this fleet, by Herodotus, is almost the only information we possess with regard to the size of Greek ships, and of the relative maritime power of the different Greek states. Describing the naval force which defeated the Persian fleet off the promontory of Artemisium, Herodotus states:[183]—“The Greeks engaged in the sea-service were these. The Athenians furnished one hundred and twenty-seven vessels to the fleet; but the Platæans, from a spirit of valour and zeal, though inexperienced in the sea-service, assisted the Athenians in manning the ships. The Corinthians furnished forty ships, the Megarians twenty; the Chalcideans manned twenty, the Athenians having furnished them with ships; the Æginetans eighteen; the Sicyonians twelve; the Lacedæmonians ten; the Epidaurians eight; the Eretrians seven; the Trœzenians five; the Styreans two; and the Cêans two ships, and two penteconters; the Opuntian Locrians also came to their assistance with seven penteconters.” Of the individual size of these vessels no mention is however made; but speaking, in another portion of his history, of the preparations made to resist the invasion of Xerxes, Herodotus[184] says: “Now the Grecians from Thrace, and the islands contiguous to Thrace, furnished one hundred and twenty ships; with crews in number amounting to twenty-four thousand men,” equivalent to two hundred fighting-men a ship. The same author further remarks,[185] that “Clinias,[186] son of Alcibiades, at his own expense, joined the fleet with two hundred men and a ship of his own:” on the other hand, Xenophon states that the Athenians in this celebrated war put on board a fleet of a hundred sail only one thousand marines, and four hundred archers, which is only fourteen men to each vessel, besides the rowers. [Sidenote: B.C. 481.]