I'm exploring the history of the Peloponnesian War and I was wondering how much money a trireme cost and how long it took on average to build such a ship.
Two talents may confidently be assumed, [...] as a moderate estimate of the cost of both hull and rigging of a trireme. (p. 364)
Newer authors (relying, as far as I can tell from a very cursory examination, upon basically the same literary sources as Robbins and his authorities) seem to stay in the same ballpark.
An Attic talent was equal to 6000 drachmas and since wiki tells us that, "According to wage rates from 377 BC, a talent was the value of nine man-years of skilled work.", this tallies quite well with the answer given by @Pieter Geerkens.
Wikipedia, after Hanson (2006), claims that a typical trireme took 6,000 man days to complete. If you take a 25 man crew as around the optimal size, balancing the ease of performing certain tasks against the non-linear aspects of managing large teams, that would equate to 240 days effort, or perhaps 9 months elapsed time allowing for days off, bad weather, etc.
Certainly one single trireme could be built faster with a larger crew, at the cost of efficiency, but to construct a fleet one would desire to have the optimal crew size working on each ship. The quality of the finished vessel would be affected by whether or not the wood had been seasoned a full two years before construction started.
As has been stated also by others, the real cost of a navy was not the construction cost, but the operating cost. According to Thucydides, the operating cost in 5th century Athens amounted to one silver talent per trireme per month, which is approximately 25 kilograms of silver per month.
This is mentioned in Thucydides VI, 8.1 when in the spring of 415, Athenian envoys, together with Egestean representatives returned from Sicily bringing 60 talents of silver for one months pay to 60 Athenian triremes (ἑξήκοντα τάλαντα ἀσήμου ἀργυρίου ὡς ἐς ἑξήκοντα ναῦς μηνὸς μισθόν).
When describing the Athenian fleet about to embark on the major Sicilian expedition, Thucydides VI, 31.3 explicitly mentions that the daily wage paid by the Athenian state to each seaman amounted one (silver) drachma (τοῦ μὲν δημοσίου δραχμὴν τῆς ἡμέρας τῷ ναύτῃ ἑκάστῳ διδόντος). This squares nicely with the overall monthly cost of one talent per trireme per month, considering that each trireme had a crew of approximately 200 and that one talent = 6,000 drachmas.
Please bear in mind that Thucydides was himself (if only briefly) an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War in command of a small fleet of triremes, so his testimony is as reliable as one could hope for.
I have found the BA dissertation by Rosemary Peck to provide good discussion and an excellent collection of additional reading on this subject.
The common consensus by both ancient writers and modern is that it took about 1-2 talents of silver to field a ship.
However, the operational costs of a ship were generally greatly in excess of the costs just to build it.
For example, in the Samian War the Athenians demanded an indemnity of 1300 talents to re-imburse them for the costs of the war and the Athenians fielded 60 ships for 9 months in that war. So, that would be at least 20 talents per year per ship. This would indicate the operational costs were a lot higher than the ship building costs.
A silver talent equates to roughly $750,000 now in wage earning power.
For example, a 150-200 man crew of a trireme might be paid 1 talent per month. So, at $750,000 per talent that would be $3,750 per month per man or $45,000 per year which is about what the average Navy sailor makes right now.
Thus, the modern equivalent of the 60-ship Samian war would be 1300 x $750,000 = $9.75 billion dollars
Katika kipindi cha vita vya Peloponnesian, meli ya Trireme ilichukua muda mrefu sana kujenga. Tathmini ya wastani ya gharama ya meli ya Trireme na ya meli ya Trireme " (P. 364) Waandishi wapya (kutegemea, kama ninavyoweza kusema kutoka kwa uchunguzi wa haraka sana, juu ya vyanzo sawa vya fasihi kama Robbins na mamlaka yake) wanaonekana kukaa katika uwanja huo wa mpira.""" "Thalanta ya zamani ililinganishwa na dola za Kijerumani 6,000, na kwa mujibu wa sheria za kihistoria za mwaka wa 377 KK, ""talanta"" ilikuwa thamani ya kazi ya miaka tisa ya kazi ya ufundi." "Hii inalingana vizuri na jibu lililotolewa na @Pieter Geerkens. "Hansson, Mtaalamu wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi wa Ujenzi.""" Ikiwa unachukua wafanyakazi wa 25 kama ukubwa bora, kusawazisha urahisi wa kufanya kazi fulani dhidi ya mambo yasiyo ya linear ya kusimamia timu kubwa, hiyo ingekuwa sawa na siku 240 ya juhudi, au labda miezi tisa ya muda uliopita, ikiruhusu siku za kupumzika, hali mbaya ya hewa, na kadhalika. Kwa hakika trireme moja inaweza kujengwa kwa kasi zaidi na wafanyakazi wengi, kwa gharama ya ufanisi, lakini kujenga meli moja ingekuwa tamaa ya kuwa na ukubwa bora wa wafanyakazi kufanya kazi kwenye kila meli. Ubora wa chombo kilichokamilika ungeathiriwa na ikiwa mbao hiyo ilikuwa imepikwa miaka miwili kamili kabla ya ujenzi kuanza. Kama ilivyoelezwa pia na wengine, gharama halisi ya jeshi la wanamaji haikuwa gharama ya ujenzi, bali gharama ya uendeshaji. Kulingana na Thucydides, gharama ya uendeshaji katika Athene ya karne ya 5 ilifikia talanta moja ya fedha kwa trireme kwa mwezi, ambayo ni karibu kilo 25 za fedha kwa mwezi. Tukididi VI, katika kitabu chake cha 81, alitaja kwamba katika mwaka wa 415 B.K.E., wajumbe wa Athene walirudi kutoka Sicily wakiwa na talanta 60 za fedha, ambazo zilikuwa ni malipo ya mwezi mmoja kwa triremes 60 za Athene. Katika kitabu chake cha Thucydides, Thucydides VI, anasema kwamba kila baharia wa Athene alipata mshahara wa drachma moja (drachma ya fedha). "Hiyo inalingana na gharama ya kila mwezi ya talanta moja kwa kila trireme, kwa kuzingatia kwamba kila trireme ilikuwa na wafanyakazi wapatao 200 na kwamba talanta moja = drachma 6,000.""" Tukididi alikuwa mkuu wa jeshi la Athene wakati wa vita vya Peloponnesia, na alikuwa na uwezo wa kuongoza meli ndogo za meli za kivita, na hivyo ushahidi wake ni wa kuaminika. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""B.A. dissertation"" ya Rosemary Peck ni kitabu cha kuvutia sana, na inaonyesha jinsi ya kuunda na kuunda kazi ya kuunda kazi ya kuunda." "Wanafunzi wa zamani na wa kisasa wanakubaliana kwamba ""talanta moja au mbili za fedha zilitumiwa kuendesha meli.""" Hata hivyo, kwa kawaida gharama za kuendesha meli zilikuwa kubwa kuliko gharama za kuijenga tu. Katika vita vya Samia, Athene ilidai talanta 1300 ili kulipia gharama za vita, na Athene ilitoa meli 60 kwa miezi tisa. Kwa hiyo, ni kiasi cha talanta 20 kwa mwaka kwa kila meli. Hii ingeonyesha gharama za uendeshaji zilikuwa za juu zaidi kuliko gharama za ujenzi wa meli. Talanta moja ya fedha inalingana na dola 750,000 za Marekani kwa sasa. Kwa mfano, wafanyakazi 150 hadi 200 wa meli ya kubebea meli ya aina ya trireme walipewa talanta moja kwa mwezi. Kwa hivyo, kwa $ 750,000 kwa talanta, hiyo itakuwa $ 3,750 kwa mwezi kwa mtu au $ 45,000 kwa mwaka, ambayo ni karibu na kile baharia wa kawaida wa Jeshi la Wanamaji hufanya sasa. Kwa hiyo, sawa ya kisasa ya vita vya meli 60 za Samia ingekuwa $ 1.300 x $ 750,000 = $ 9.75 bilioni.