Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Tessarakonteres (Greek: τεσσαρακοντήρης, "forty-rowed"), or simply "forty", was a very large catamaran galley reportedly built in the Hellenistic period by Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt. It was described by a number of ancient sources, including a lost work by Callixenus of Rhodes and surviving texts by Athenaeus and Plutarch.
The penteconter (alt. spelling pentekonter, pentaconter, pentecontor or pentekontor; Greek: πεντηκόντερος, pentēkónteros, "fifty-oared" [1]), plural penteconters, was an ancient Greek galley in use since the archaic period. In an alternative meaning, the term was also used for a military commander of fifty men in ancient Greece. [2]
A trireme (/ ˈ t r aɪ r iː m / TRY-reem; from Latin trirēmis [1] 'with three banks of oars'; cf. Ancient Greek: τριήρης, romanized: triḗrēs [2], lit. 'three-rower') was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and ...
A bireme (/ ˈ b aɪ r iː m /, BY-reem) is an ancient oared warship with two superimposed rows of oars on each side. Biremes were long vessels built for military purposes and could achieve relatively high speed. They were invented well before the 6th century BC and were used by the Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Greeks.
Ancient war galleys of the kind used in Classical Greece are by modern historians considered to be the most energy-efficient and fastest of galley designs throughout history. A full-scale replica of a 5th-century BC trireme, the Olympias was built 1985–87 and was put through a series of trials to test its performance. They proved that a ...
Olympias is a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme and an important example of experimental archaeology. It is also a commissioned ship in the Hellenic Navy of Greece, the only commissioned vessel of its kind in any of the world's navies.
Most of the warships of the era were distinguished by their names, which were compounds of a number and a suffix. Thus the English term quinquereme derives from Latin quīnquerēmis and has the Greek equivalent πεντήρης (pentḗrēs). Both are compounds featuring a prefix meaning "five": Latin quīnque, ancient Greek πέντε (pénte).
A stone tablet (Stele di Novilara) discovered near ancient Pisaurum (now Pesaro) depicts a liburna in the midst of a naval battle. Dating back to the fifth or sixth century BCE, the image likely portrays a fictional clash between the Liburnian and Picene fleets. The liburna is depicted as a light vessel with a single row of oars, one mast, one ...