thumb|250px|Roman [[trireme from
Carthage, mosaic at
Bardo Museum, Tunis]]
The
trireme ( sing.,
τριήρεις pl., sing.,
triremes pl.) is a class of warship used by the ancient civilizations of the
Mediterranean, especially the
Phoenicians,
ancient Greeks and
Romans. In English, no differentiation is made between the Greek
triērēs and the Latin
triremis. This is sometimes a source of confusion, as in other languages these terms refer to different styles of ships.
The trireme derives its name from its three rows of
oars on each side, manned with one man per oar. The early trireme was a development of the
penteconter, an ancient warship with a single row of 25 oars on each side, and of the
bireme (), a warship with two banks of oars, probably of Phoenician origin. As a ship it was fast and agile, and became the dominant
warship in the
Mediterranean from the
7th to the
4th century BC, when they were largely superseded by the larger
quadriremes and
quinquiremes. Triremes played a vital role in the
Persian Wars, the creation of the
Athenian maritime empire, and its downfall in the
Peloponnesian War.
History
Origin
Assyrian warship (probably built by Phoenicians) with two rows of oars, relief from Nineveh, ca. 700 BC
The exact origin of the trireme is uncertain and debated, as our evidence comes from literary sources, depictions in reliefs and pottery fragments, which are open to misinterpretations. Depictions of two-tiered ships (biremes), with or without the
parexeiresia (the
outriggers, see below), are common in
8th century BC vases and pottery fragments, and it is at the end of that century that the first references to three-tiered ships are found. According to
Thucydides, the trireme was
introduced to Greece by the
Corinthians in the late
8th century BC, and the Corinthian Ameinocles built four such ships for the
Samians. Although this was interpreted by later writers,
Pliny and
Diodorus, to mean that triremes were
invented in Corinth, it is likely that the earliest three-tiered warships originated in
Phoenicia. Fragments from an 8th century relief at the
Assyrian capital of
Nineveh depicting the fleets of
Tyre and
Sidon have been interpreted as depicting two- and three-level warships, fitted with
rams. The 2nd century Christian scholar
Clement of Alexandria, drawing on earlier works, explicitly attributes the invention of the trireme (
trikrotos naus, "three-tiered ship") to the Sidonians.
Early use and development
The Lenorman Relief, from the
Athenian Acropolis, depicting the rowers of an
aphract Athenian trireme, ca. 410 BC. Found in 1852, it is one of the main pictorial testaments to the layout of the trireme.
A Greek trireme.
mentions that the
Egyptian pharaoh
Necho (610–595 BC) built triremes on the
Nile, for service in the Mediterranean, and in the
Red Sea, but this reference is disputed by modern historians, and attributed to a confusion, since "triērēs" was by the 5th century used in the generic sense of "warship", regardless its type. The first definite reference to the use of triremes in naval combat dates to ca. 525 BC, when, according to
Herodotus, the
tyrant Polycrates of
Samos was able to contribute 40 triremes to a
Persian invasion of
Egypt. Thucydides meanwhile clearly states that in the time of the
Persian invasions, the majority of the Greek navies consisted of (probably two-tiered) penteconters and
ploia makrá ("long ships").
In any case, by the early 5th century, the trireme was becoming the dominant warship type of the eastern Mediterranean, with minor differences between the "Greek" and "Phoenician" types, as literary references and depictions of the ships on coins make clear. The first large-scale naval battle where triremes participated was the
Battle of Lade during the
Ionian Revolt, where the combined fleets of the Greek
Ionian cities were defeated by the Persian fleet, composed of squadrons from their Phoenician,
Carian,
Cypriot and Egyptian subjects.
Persian and Peloponnesian Wars
Partly as a result of Athenian support to the Ionian Greeks, the Persian Great King
Darius started moving against metropolitan Greece. The Persian fleet roamed the Aegean Sea unopposed, but the first invasion force was defeated at the
Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The second invasion, under
Xerxes, included a massive land army and a large navy, which were to cooperate closely.
Athens was at that time embroiled in a conflict with the neighbouring island of
Aegina, which possessed a formidable navy. In order to counter this, and possibly with an eye already at the mounting Persian preparations, in 482 BC the Athenian statesman
Themistocles used his political skills and influence to persuade the
Athenian assembly to start the construction of 200 triremes, using the income of the newly discovered silver mines at
Lavrion. The first clash with the Persian navy was at the
Battle of Artemisium, where both sides suffered great casualties. However, the decisive naval clash occurred at
Salamis, where Xerxes' invasion fleet was decisively defeated.
After Salamis and another Greek victory over the Persian fleet at
Mycale, the Ionian cities were freed, and the
Delian League was formed under the aegis of Athens. Gradually, the predominance of Athens turned the League effectively into an Athenian Empire. The source and foundation of Athens' power was her strong fleet, composed of over 200 triremes. It not only secured control of the Aegean Sea and the loyalty of her allies, but also safeguarded the trade routes and the grain shipments from the Black Sea, which fed the city's burgeoning population. In addition, as it provided permanent employment for the city's poorer citizens, the fleet played an important role in both maintaining and promoting the radical
Athenian form of democracy. Athenian maritime power is the first example of
thalassocracy in world history. Aside from Athens, other major naval powers of the era included
Syracuse,
Corfu and
Corinth.
In the subsequent
Peloponnesian War, naval actions fought by triremes featured prominently, and despite numerous land engagements, Athens was finally defeated through the destruction of her fleet during the
Sicilian Expedition and finally, at the
Battle of Aegospotami, at the hands of
Sparta and her allies.
Construction of the trireme
Olympias, a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme.
No surviving written source gives complete information on the construction or form of the trireme. Already in the 4th century, the writer
Zosimus laments the loss of the information concerning the trireme's construction.
Because the triremes had positive
buoyancy, no remains of the ship have been found on the seabed, and scholars have had to rely on indirect evidence in texts, depictions on monuments and
amphorae, as well as indirect archaeological evidence, most prominently the ship sheds of Piraeus. Most of it concerns the "classical" type of the 5th century, especially as used by Athens. Valuable further information as to the validity of past assumptions was provided by the trireme reconstruction project (see below).
Dimensions
Excavations of the ship sheds (
neōsoikoi) at the harbour of Zea in
Piraeus, which was the main war harbour of ancient Athens, were first carried out by I. Dragatsis and
Wilhelm Dörpfeld in the 1880s. These have provided us with a general outline of the Athenian trireme. The sheds were ca. 40 m long and just 6 m wide. These dimensions are corroborated by the evidence of
Vitruvius, whereby the individual space alloted to each rower was 2
cubits. With the Doric cubit of 0,49 m, this results in an overall ship length of just under 37 m. The height of the sheds' interior was established as 4.026 metres, leading to estimates that the height of the hull above the water surface was ca. 2.15 metres. Its draught was relatively shallow, about 1 metre, which, in addition to the relatively flat keel and low weight, allowed it to be beached easily.
Construction
The mortise and tenon joint method of hull construction employed in ancient
vessels.
Construction of the trireme differed from modern practice. The ancient Mediterranean practice was to build the outer
hull first, and the ribs afterwards. To secure and strengthen the hull, ropes (
hypozōmata) were employed, fitted in the keel and stretched by means of windlasses. Hence the triremes were often called "girded" when in commission.
The triremes were made of softwoods, primarily
pine and
fir, with the latter preferred, according to
Theophrastos, for its lightness.
Larch and
plane were used for the ship's interior parts.
[Fields (2007), p. 10] The large requirements of timber for ship construction led not only to the deforestation of much of southern Greece, but also to imports of timber from
Macedon and
Thrace, or even from as far as
Lebanon.
The use of lightwoods meant that the ship could be carried ashore by as few as 140 men, but also that the hull soaked up water, which adversely affected its speed and maneuverability. The ship therefore had to be beached regularly for maintenance.Propulsion and capabilities
The ship's primary propulsion came from the 170 oars (kōpai), arranged in three rows, with one man per oar. Evidence for this is provided by Thucydides, who records that the Corinthian oarsmen carried "each his oar, cushion (hypersion) and oarloop". The ship also had two masts, a main (istos megas) and a small foremast (istos akateios), with square sails, while steering was provided by two paddles at the stern.
Classical sources indicate that the trireme was capable of sustained speeds of ca. 6 knots at a relatively leisurely pace. There is also a reference by Xenophon of a single day's voyage from Byzantium to Heraclea Pontica, which translates as an average speed of 7.37 knots. These figures seem to be corroborated by the tests conducted with the reconstructed Olympias: a maximum speed of 8 knots and a steady speed of 4 knots could be maintained, with half the crew resting at a time.Crew
The total complement (plērōma) of the ship was about 200. These were divided into the 170 rowers (eretai), who provided the ship's motive power, the deck crew headed by the trierarch, and a marine detachment.The trierarch
The ship's captain was known as the trierarch (triērarchos). He was a wealthy Athenian citizen (usually from the class of the pentakosiomedimoi), responsible for manning and maintaining the ship for 35 years, which otherwise belonged to Athens. The triērarchia was one of the liturgies of ancient Athens, and although it afforded great prestige, it constituted a great financial burden, so that in the fourth century, it was often shared by two citizens, and after 397 BC it was assigned to special boards.The deck crew
The deck and command crew (hypēresia) was headed by the helmsman, the kybernētēs, who was always an experienced seaman and often the actual commander of the vessel. Other officers were the bow lookout (prōreus or prōratēs), the boatswain (keleustēs), the quartermaster (pentēkontarchos), the shipwright (naupēgos), the piper (aulētēs) who gave the rowers' rhythm and 2 toicharchoi, in charge of the rowers on each side of the ship. In addition, there were 10 sailors, handling the masts and the sails.The rowers
Depiction of the position and angle of the
rowers in a trireme. The form of the
parexeiresia, projecting from the deck, is clearly visible.
In the Athenian navy, the crews enjoyed long practice in peacetime, becoming skilled professionals and ensuring Athens' supremacy in naval warfare. The rowers were divided according to their positions in the ship into thranitai, zygitai, and thalamitai. According to the excavated Naval Inventories, lists of ships' equipment compiled by the Athenian naval boards, there were:
- 62 thranitai in the top row (thranos means "deck"). They rowed through the parexeiresia, an outrigger which enabled the inclusion of the third row of oars without significant increase to the height and loss of stability, of the ship. Greater demands were placed upon their strength and synchronization than the other two rows.
[Fields (2007), p. 13]
- 54 zygitai in the middle row, named after the beams (zygoi) on which they sat.
[Fields (2007), p. 13]
- 54 thalamitai or thalamioi in the lowest row, (thalamos means "hold"). Their position was certainly the most uncomfortable, being underneath their colleagues and also exposed to the water entering through the oarholes, despite the use of the askōma, a leather sleeve through which the oar emerged.
The marines
A varying number of marines (epibatai), usually 10-20, were carried aboard for boarding actions. At the Battle of Salamis, each Athenian ship was recorded to have 14 hoplites and 4 archers (usually Scythian mercenaries) on board, but Herodotus narrates that the Chiots had 40 hoplites on board at Lade and that the Persian ships carried a similar number. This reflects the different practices between the Athenians and other, less professional navies. Whereas the Athenians relied on speed and maneuverability, where their highly trained crews had the advantage, other states favoured boarding, in a situation that closely mirrored the one that developed during the First Punic War. As the presence of too many heavily armed hoplites on deck tended to destabilize the ship, the epibatai were normally seated, only rising to carry out any boarding action. The hoplites belonged to the middle social classes, so that they came immediately next to the trierarch in status aboard the ship.Tactics
In the ancient world, naval combat relied on two methods: ramming and boarding. Artillery in the form of ballistas and catapults was widespread, especially in later centuries, but its inherent technical limitations meant that it could not play a decisive role in combat. Rams (embolon) were fitted to the prows of warships, and were used to rupture the hull of the enemy ship. The preferred method of attack was to come in from astern and behind, with the aim not of creating a single hole, but of rupturing as big a length of the enemy vessel as possible. The minimum speed necessary for a successful impact was about 10 knots. Another method was to brush alongside the enemy ship, with oars drawn in, in order to break the enemy's oars and render the ship immobile, to be finished off with ease. Unlike later eras, boarding actions were not very frequent with the triremes. Their small size allowed for a limited number of marines to be carried aboard, and during the 5th and 4th centuries, emphasis was laid on manoeuvrability and speed, not on armour and firing power, although fleets less confident of their ability in ramming were prone to load more marines onto their ships. In any case, prior to engagement, the masts and railings of the ship were taken down, hindering any attempt at using grappling hooks. The Athenians especially became masters in the art of ramming, using light, un-decked (aphraktai) triremes.
Squadrons of triremes employed a variety of tactics. The periplous (Gk., "sailing around") involved outflanking or encircling the enemy so as to attack them in the vulnerable rear; the diekplous (Gk., "Sailing out through") involved a concentrated charge so as to break a hole in the enemy line, allowing galleys to break through and then wheel to attack the enemy line from behind; and the kyklos (Gk., "circle") and the mēnoeidēs kyklos (Gk. "half-circle"), were defensive tactics to be employed against these manoeuvres. In all of these manoeuvres, the ability to accelerate faster, row faster, and turn more sharply than one's enemy was very important.Changes of engagement and construction
During the Hellenistic period, the light trireme was supplanted by larger warships in dominant navies, especially the pentere/quinquereme. The maximum practical number of oar banks a ship could have was three. So the numbers did not refer to the banks of oars any more (for biremes, triremes and quinquiremes), but to the number of rowers per vertical section, with several men on each oar. The reasons for this development was the increasing use of armour on the bows of warships against ramming attacks, which again required heavier ships for a successful attack. This increased the number of rowers per ship, and also made it possible to use less well-trained personnel for moving these new ships to the minimum impact speed of 10 knots. This change was accompanied by an increased reliance on tactics like boarding, missile skirmishes and using warships as platforms for artillery.
Triremes continued to be the mainstay of all smaller navies. While the Hellenistic kingdoms did develop the quinquireme and even larger ships, most navies of the Greek homeland and the smaller colonies could only afford triremes. It was used by the Diadochi Empires and sea powers like Syracuse, Carthage and later Rome. The difference to the classical 5th century Athenian ships was that they were armoured against ramming and carried significantly more marines. Lightened versions of the trireme and smaller vessels were often used as auxiliaries, and still performed quite effectively against the heavier ships, thanks to their greater manoeuvrability.
With the rise of Rome the biggest fleet of quinquiremes temporarily ruled the Mediterranean, but during the civil wars after Caesar's death the fleet was on the wrong side and a new warfare with light liburnians was developed. By Imperial times the fleet was relatively small and had mostly political influence, controlling the grain supply and fighting pirates, who usually employed light biremes and liburnians. But instead of the successful liburnians of the civil war, it was again centred around light triremes, but still with many marines. Out of this type of ship the dromon developed.Reconstruction
In 1985–1987 a shipbuilder in Piraeus, financed by Frank Welsh (an Author, Suffolk banker, writer and trireme enthusiast), advised by historian J. S. Morrison and naval architect John F. Coates (who with Welsh founded the Trireme Trust that initiated and managed the project), and informed by evidence from underwater archaeology, built a reconstructed Athenian trireme, Olympias.
Crewed by 170 volunteer oarsmen and oarswomen, Olympias in 1988 achieved 9 knots (17 km/h or 10.5 mph). These results, achieved with inexperienced crew, suggest that the ancient writers were not exaggerating about straight-line performance. In addition, Olympias was able to execute a 180-degree turn in one minute and in an arc no wider than two and one half (2.5) ship-lengths. Additional sea trials took place in 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1994. In 2004 Olympias was used ceremonially to transport the Olympic Flame from the port of Keratsini to the main port of Piraeus as the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay entered its final stages in the run-up to the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.
The builders of the reconstruction project considered that it effectively proved conclusively what had previously been in doubt, that Athenian triremes were arranged with the crew positioned in a staggered arrangement on three levels with one person per oar. This would have made optimum use of the available internal dimensions. However since modern humans are on average approximately 6 cm (2 inches) taller than Ancient Greeks (and the same relative dimensions can be presumed for oarsmen and other athletes), the construction of a craft which followed the precise dimensions of the ancient vessel led to cramped rowing conditions and consequent restrictions on the modern crew's ability to propel the vessel with full efficiency, which perhaps explains why the ancient speed records stand unbroken.See also
Sources
