A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

Biremis. (Winckelmann, pl. 207.)

Navis Aperta. (Coin of Corcyra.)

The first Greek people whom we know to have acquired a navy of importance were the Corinthians, Samians, and Phocaeans. About the time of Cyrus and Cambyses the Corinthian Triremes were generally adopted by the Sicilian tyrants and by the Corcyraeans, who soon acquired the most powerful navies among the Greeks. In other parts of Greece and even at Athens and in Aegina the most common vessels about this time were long ships with only one rank of rowers on each side. Athens, although the foundation of its maritime power had been laid by Solon [[Naucraria]], did not obtain a fleet of any importance until the time of Themistocles, who persuaded the Athenians to build 200 Triremes for the purpose of carrying on the war against Aegina. But even then ships were not provided with complete decks (καταστρώματα) covering the whole of the vessel. Ships with only a partial deck or with no deck at all, were called ἄφρακτοι νῆες, and in Latin naves apertae. Even at the time of the Persian war, the Athenian ships were without a complete deck. Ships which had a complete deck were called κατάφρακτοι, and the deck itself κατάστρωμα. At the time when Themistocles induced the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 sail he also carried a decree, that every year twenty new Triremes should be built from the produce of the mines of Laurium. After the time of Themistocles as many as twenty Triremes must have been built every year both in times of war and of peace, as the average number of Triremes which was always ready amounted to between three and four hundred. Such an annual addition was the more necessary, as the vessels were of a light structure and did not last long. The whole superintendence of the building of new Triremes was in the hands of the senate of the Five Hundred, but the actual business was entrusted to a committee called the τριηροποιοί, one of whom acted as their treasurer, and had in his keeping the money set apart for the purpose. Under the Macedonian supremacy the Rhodians became the greatest maritime power in Greece. The navy of Sparta was never of great importance. Navigation remained for the most part what it had been before; the Greeks seldom ventured out into the open sea, and it was generally considered necessary to remain in sight of the coast or of some island, which also served as guides in daytime: in the night the position, rising and setting of the different stars answered the same purpose. In winter navigation generally ceased altogether. In cases where it would have been necessary to coast around a considerable extent of country, which was connected with the main land by a narrow neck, the ships were sometimes drawn across the neck of land from one sea to the other, by machines called ὁλκοί. This was done most frequently across the isthmus of Corinth.—The various kinds of ships used by the Greeks might be divided, according to the number of ranks of rowers employed in them, into Moneres, Biremes, Triremes, Quadriremes, Quinqueremes, &c., up to the enormous ship with forty ranks of rowers, built by Ptolemaeus Philopator. But all these appear to have been constructed on the same principle, and it is more convenient to divide them into ships of war and ships of burden (φορτικὰ, φορτηγοὶ, ὁλκάδες, πλοῖα, στρογγύλαι, naves onerariae, naves actuariae). Ships of the latter kind were not calculated for quick movement or rapid sailing, but to carry the greatest possible quantity of goods. Hence their structure was bulky, their bottom round, and although they were not without rowers, yet the chief means by which they were propelled were their sails. The most common ships of war in the earlier times were the pentecontori (πεντηκόντοροι), but afterwards they were chiefly Triremes, and the latter are frequently designated only by the name νῆες, while all the others are called by the name indicating their peculiar character. Triremes however were again divided into two classes: the one consisting of real men-of-war, which were quick-sailing vessels (ταχεῖαι), and the other of transports either for soldiers (στρατιώτιδες or ὁπλιταγωγοί) or for horses (ἱππηγοί, ἱππαγωγοί). Ships of this class were more heavy and awkward, and were therefore not used in battle except in cases of necessity. The ordinary size of a war galley may be inferred from the fact that the average number of men engaged in it, including the crew and marines, was two hundred, to whom on some occasions as many as thirty epibatae were added. [[Epibatae].]—Vessels with more than three ranks of rowers on each side were not constructed in Greece till about the year 400 B.C., when Dionysius I., tyrant of Syracuse, who bestowed great care upon his navy, built the first Quadriremes (τετρήρεις), and Quinqueremes (πεντήρεις). In the reign of Dionysius II., Hexeres (ἑξήρεις) are also mentioned. After the time of Alexander the Great the use of vessels with four, five, and more ranks of rowers became very general, and it is well known that the first Punic war was chiefly carried on with Quinqueremes. Ships with twelve, thirty, or even forty ranks of rowers, such as they were built by Alexander and the Ptolemies, appear to have been mere curiosities, and did not come into common use. The Athenians at first did not adopt vessels larger than Triremes, probably because they thought that with rapidity and skill they could do more than with large and unwieldy ships. In the year B.C. 356 they continued to use nothing but Triremes; but in B.C. 330 the republic had already a number of Quadriremes, which was afterwards increased. The first Quinqueremes at Athens are mentioned in a document belonging to the year B.C. 325.—Among the smaller vessels we may mention the ἄκατος or ἀκάτιον, which seems to have been sometimes used as a ship of burden. The name Scapha (σκάφη) denotes a small skiff or life-boat, which was commonly attached to merchantmen for the purpose of saving the crew in danger.—Liburna, or Liburnica, in Greek λιβυρνίς or λιβυρνόν, is a name given apparently to every war-ship, from a bireme up to those with six lines of rowers on each side, but in the time of Augustus, liburnae even with six lines of rowers were considered small and swift in comparison with the unwieldy ships of Antony at Actium. They were usually provided with a beak, whence a navis rostrata is generally the same as a Liburna. They were first constructed by the Liburnians (whence they derived their name), and formed the main part of the fleet of Augustus in the battle of Actium.—Every vessel at Athens, as in modern times, had a name given to it, which was generally of the feminine gender. The Romans sometimes gave to their ships masculine names. The Greek names were either taken from ancient heroines such as Nausicaa, or they were abstract words such as Forethought, Safety, Guidance, &c. In many cases the name of the builder also was added.—The Romans appear to have first become aware of the importance of a fleet during the second Samnite war, in the year B.C. 311: when duumviri navales were for the first time appointed by the people. The ships which the Romans now built were undoubtedly Triremes. This fleet, however insignificant it may have been, continued to be kept up until the time when Rome became a real maritime power. In the year B.C. 260, when the Romans saw that without a navy they could not carry on the war against Carthage with any advantage, the senate ordained that a fleet should be built. Triremes would now have been of no avail against the high-bulwarked vessels (Quinqueremes) of the Carthaginians. But the Romans would have been unable to build others had not fortunately a Carthaginian Quinquereme been wrecked on the coast of Bruttium, and fallen into their hands. This wreck the Romans took as their model, and after it built 120, or according to others 130 ships. From this time forward the Romans continued to keep up a powerful navy. Towards the end of the Republic they also increased the size of their ships, and built war vessels of from six to ten ranks of rowers. The construction of their ships, however, scarcely differed from that of Greek vessels; the only great difference was that the Roman galleys were provided with a greater variety of destructive engines of war than those of the Greeks. They even erected turres and tabulata upon the decks of their great men-of-war (naves turritae), and fought upon them as if they were standing upon the walls of a fortress (see cut, [p. 260]).

BIREMIS.

A. Prora, πρώρα.
B. Oculus, ὀφθαλμός.
C. Rostrum, ἔμβολος.
D. Cheniscus, χηνίσκος.
E. Puppis, πρύμνη.
F. Aplustre, ἄφλαστον, with the pole containing
the fascia or taenia.

G. τράφηξ.
H. Remi, κώπαι.
I. Gubernaculum, πηδάλιον.
K. Malus, ἱστός.
L. Velum, ἱστός.
M. Antenna, κεραία, κέρας.
N. Cornua, ἀκροκέραιαι.

O. Ceruchi, κεροῦχοι.
P. Carchesium, καρχήσιον.
Q. κάλοι, καλῴδια.
R. πρότονος.
S. Pedes, πόδες.
T. Opifera, ὑπέραι.