Fig. 191.
As in the Homeric age, so probably also in the following period, the ships were constructed in such a
Fig. 192.
Fig. 193.
manner as to be tolerably flat, and accommodate only one line of rowers on each side; consequently, in large ships there would be fifty oarsmen or more on either side. But they soon began to build the ships higher and to arrange the oarsmen in several ranks one above another, in two rows, as in Fig. [194], but more commonly in three rows, and these ships were then called Triremes; in later times, especially after the fourth century, there were four or even six rows, and possibly still more. The arrangement of these rowers’ benches is of particular interest, and is made tolerably clear by the Athenian relief represented in Fig. [195].[G] The rowers’ benches occupied the whole