The Paralus was an Athenian sacred ship

Athenian sacred ships

Athenian sacred ships were ancient Athenian ships, often triremes, which had special religious functions such as serving in sacred processions or embassies or racing in boat races during religious festivals...

 and a messenger trireme

Trireme

A trireme was a type of galley, a Hellenistic-era warship that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar...

 of the Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 navy during the late 5th century BC. Its crew were known for their vehement pro-democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 views. It played a notable role in several episodes of the Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

.

The Paralus appears more often in the literary and epigraphical sources for the classical period than any other individual ship; it carried almost all recorded Athenian diplomatic mission

Diplomatic mission

A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...

s in the 5th and 4th centuries, and it appears that on most of these missions the treasurer (tamias) of Paralus acted as the chief ambassador.

The crew of the Paralus (the Paraloi) was known for its exceptionally strong pro-democracy views; its remarkable unity on this matter may indicate that it was composed of the members of a single genos

Genos

Genos was the ancient Greek term for kind; race; family; birth; origin which identified themselves as a unit, referred to by a single name...

 of the name Paraloi. This crew was instrumental in preventing an oligarchic

Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...

 coup

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 at Samos

Samos Island

Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional...

 in 411 BC

411 BC

Year 411 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mugillanus and Rutilus...

. Upon bringing the news of this event to Athens, however, they found that a successful oligarchic coup had taken place there, and were interned; one crew member, escaping, brought the news of this event to the fleet at Samos, beginning the period of open division between the city and the fleet.

In 405 BC

405 BC

Year 405 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Barbatus, Capitolinus, Cincinnatus, Medullinus, Iullus and Mamercinus...

, the Paralus was one of ten ships that escaped from the Athenian disaster at Aegospotami

Battle of Aegospotami

The naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 405 BC and was the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War. In the battle, a Spartan fleet under Lysander completely destroyed the Athenian navy...

 with Conon

Conon

Conon was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who presided over the crucial Athenian naval defeat at Battle of Aegospotami; later he contributed significantly to the restoration of the political and military power.-Defeat at Aegospotami:Conon had been sent out following the...

; it was then dispatched to inform Athens of the defeat, its arrival setting off a citywide panic.

Other sources

• Kagan, Donald
  Donald Kagan
  Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece, notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. 1987-1988 Acting Director of Athletics, Yale University. He was Dean of Yale College from 1989–1992. He formerly taught in the Department of...
  
  . The Peloponnesian War (Penguin Books, 2003). ISBN 0-670-03211-5
• Jordan, Borimir, The Athenian Navy in the Classical Period. (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1975) ISBN 0-520-09482-4
• Xenophon, Hellenica