A quinquereme (Latin) or penteres (Greek) is a type of ancient oar-propelled warship that was used by the Greeks of the Hellenistic period and later by the Carthaginians and Romans, from the 4th century BC to the 1st century. This article focuses on the historical aspects of the Hellenistic age for the cultural aspects see Hellenistic civilisation. Carthage (Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Carthago from the Phoenician קרת חדשת phn-Latn Qart-ḥadašt meaning new town) refers Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC. The 1st century was the Century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. It was developed from the earlier trireme. Trireme ( τριήρης sing τριήρεις pl triremis sing
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Construction
In the 4th century BC, after the Peloponnesian War, there was a shortage of oarsmen of sufficient skill to man large navies of triremes. The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC. Trireme ( τριήρης sing τριήρεις pl triremis sing The search for designs of galley that would allow oarsmen to use muscle power instead of skill led Dionysius of Syracuse to build tetreres (quadriremes) and penteres (quinqueremes). Quadriremes is the Latin name for a class of ancient Warship used in Ancient Rome, and before that in the Greek Navy. Later accounts talk about hexeres, hepteres and even larger galleys than those. Most scholars hold that these were larger galleys with ever increasing numbers of files,[1] but there has been debate. Some hold that for the larger ships there was a different classification system.
There is fragmentary and highly selective information about the "five" in texts, thus its the construction is unclear. The Isola Tiberina prow, a large-scale model on the Tiber at Rome, is most likely a "five. "[2] According to modern historians, the numbers used to describe galleys counted the number of rows of men on each side, and not the numbers of oars. Quinqueremes are thought to have had three rows of oars, with two men pulling each of the top two oars. [3]
It had become apparent at the Battle of Syracuse in 413 BC that the topmost tier of rowers, the thranites, were vulnerable to attack by arrows and catapults, so the newer vessels completely enclosed all the rowers below the deck. The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian expedition to Sicily from 415 BC to 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. Events By place Greece After suffering a defeat in which the Athenian commander Lamachus is killed Demosthenes suggests A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a Projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various According to Polybius, a quinquereme had a complement of 300 oarsmen, 120 marines, and 50 crew. Polybius (ca 203 &ndash 120 BC, Greek) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories Historian Fik Meijer suggests that on each side of a quinquereme there would have been 58 thranites pulling 29 oars, 58 zygites (the middle row of oarsmen) pulling 29 oars and 34 thalamites (the bottom row) with an oar each.
Quinqueremes were even more difficult to make stable than triremes, and the increase in speed was not so great as to give the larger galleys much of an advantage. Therefore smaller navies had a core of trireme warships, while bigger navies like Egypt, Rome and Carthage were able to afford a large number of quinqueremes and polyremes. Their advantage was the protection against ramming attacks and the larger body of marines. Comparing the effect of multiple man oars to one man oars you have to look at several men as not fully participating. Because of the restricted movement a large number of rowers did not propel the vessel with as much of their musclepower as on a one man oar. At this time the Greek homeland had declined as a naval power. Only Macedonia's uniting rule was able to afford these juggernauts in larger numbers and with its decline the fleet had to use cheaper triremes again to keep at least a large number of ships in the battleline. But this type of ship had changed into a heavier warship with the rowers now all protected under deck, much more firepower and marines.
Certainly quinqueremes were not produced in large numbers, except for a few dominant navies, and triremes remained the mainstay of the Mediterranean navies. According to Polybius at the beginning of the First Punic War, Rome had 10 triremes for coastal defence. Polybius (ca 203 &ndash 120 BC, Greek) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories The First Punic War ( 264 to 241 BC) was the first of three major wars fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic. Trireme ( τριήρης sing τριήρεις pl triremis sing After this war, the Romans had the supreme navy of the Mediterranean. During the Second Punic War Rome had 220 quinqueremes and a medium sized seapower like the kingdom of Pergamon had 100 triremes. The Second Punic War (referred to as "The War Against Hannibal" by the Romans lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2
Polyremes
The wars of the Diadochi, the successors to the empire of Alexander the Great, caused another arms race. The Diadochi (plural of Latin Diadochus, from Greek Διάδοχοι, Diadokhoi, "successors" were the rival successors Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' This time the trend was to build bigger and bigger galleys. Macedon was building hexiremes (probably with two men on each of three oars) in 340 BC; by 315 BC Antigonus, the successor to Alexander the Great in Macedon, was building septiremes, which saw action at the Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC); his son Demetrius, involved in a naval war with Ptolemy of Egypt, built eights (octeres), nines, tens, twelves and finally sixteens. Macedon or Macedonia ( Greek grc Μακεδονία grc-Latn Makedonía) was the name of a kingdom centered in the northern-most Events By place Persian Empire Rhodes falls to Persian forces Events By place Macedonian Empire Antigonus claims authority over most of Asia seizes the treasury at Susa and enters Babylon Antigonus I Monophthalmus ("the One-eyed" (382 BC - 301 BC son of Philip from Elimeia, was a Macedonian nobleman general and Satrap The naval Battle of Salamis took place in 306 BC near Salamis Cyprus between the fleets of Ptolemy I of Egypt and Demetrius, two of the Demetrius I (337-283 BC Greek: Δημήτριος) called Poliorcetes (Greek Πολιορκητής) ("The Besieger" son of For the astronomer see Ptolemy; for others named "Ptolemy" or "Ptolemaeus" see Ptolemy (disambiguation.
A change in the technology of conflict had taken place to allow these juggernauts of the seas to be created, as the development of catapults had neutralised the power of the ram, and speed and manoeuvrability were no longer as important as they had been. It was easy to mount catapults on galleys; Alexander the Great had used them to considerable effect when he besieged Tyre from the sea in 332 BC. Tyre ( Arabic صور Ṣūr, Phoenician Phoenician wawsvg|12px|ו]] Ṣur, Hebrew Events By place Persian Empire The Persian King Darius III twice sends Alexander letters of friendship The catapults did not aim to sink the enemy galleys, but rather to injure or kill the rowers (remember that a significant number of rowers out of place on either side would ruin the performance of the entire ship and prevent its ram from being effective). Now combat at sea returned to the boarding and fighting that it had been before the development of the ram, and larger galleys could carry more soldiers.
Some of the later galleys were monstrous in size, with oars as long as 17 metres pulled by as many as eight rowers. With so many rowers, if one of them was killed by a catapult shot, the rest could continue and not interrupt the stroke. The innermost oarsman on such a galley had to step forward and back a few paces with each stroke.
The very largest galleys were probably catamarans, according to J. A catamaran (From Tamil 'kattumaram' is a type of Multihulled Boat or Ship consisting of two hulls or vakas joined by some S. Morrison. An account by Memnon describes how Demetrius' rival Lysimachus of Asia Minor built a galley, the Leontophorus, so large it required 1600 rowers and could support 1200 marines. Lysimachus ( Greek: Λυσίμαχος Lysimachos; 360 BCE - 281 BCE was a Macedonian officer and diadochus (i Plutarch described a quadragintareme (forty) built for Ptolemy IV of Egypt in about 200 BC that was 128 m long, required 4,000 rowers and 400 other crew, and could support a force of 3,000 marines on its decks. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c Ptolemy IV Philopator ( Greek:, Ptolemaĩos Philopátōr, reigned 221-205 BC son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II of Egypt was Events By place Seleucid Empire Antiochus III's forces continue their invasion of Coele Syria and Palestine. He wrote, "This ship was only for show. It scarcely differed from buildings which are rooted in the ground and had great difficulty in being put to sea. "
Roman
The large galleys must have been very sluggish and could be defeated by large numbers of smaller ships. The Roman navies consisted of triremes, quadriremes and quinqueremes. The Roman Navy ( Latin: Classis, lit "fleet" comprised the naval forces of the Roman state Though armed with a ram, these ships usually fought by boarding rather than ramming. The Romans during the First Punic war used a special wooden boarding ramp 36 ft (11 m) long and 4 ft (1. The First Punic War ( 264 to 241 BC) was the first of three major wars fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International 22 m) wide, with a long metal spike on the bottom that could be dropped onto an enemy ship to immobilize the ship and facilitate boarding[4]. This device was called a corvus or "crow". A corvus (meaning "crow" or "raven" in Latin) or harpago (probably the correct ancient name) was a Roman military But this invention led to the destruction of complete fleets during storms. Therefore at the decisive battle of the Aegates Islands and afterwards it was no longer employed by the Roman Navy. The Battle of the Aegates Islands or Aegusa ( Aegadian Islands, off the western coast of the island of Sicily, 10 March 241 BC) was The Roman Navy ( Latin: Classis, lit "fleet" comprised the naval forces of the Roman state According to Polybius another invention was called the "bear" and simply hit the enemy ship like a ram, but did not penetrate the hull. It was used to unbalance it and throw parts of the crew out of their rowing benches or from deck.
In the last great naval battle of the ancient world, at Actium in 31 BC, Octavian's lighter and more manoeuvrable ships defeated Antony's heavy fleet. The Battle of Actium was the decisive engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony Year 31 BC was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. Augustus ( Latin: IMPERATOR·CAESAR·DIVI·FILIVS·AVGVSTVS September 23 63 BC – August 19 AD 14) born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was Marcus Antonius (in Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N ( c January 14 83 BC&ndash August 1, 30 BC known in English as Mark These lighter ships increasingly relied on shooting and burning the enemy. After that, with the Roman Empire in charge of the entire Mediterranean, a heavy navy was no longer needed. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial By 325 there were no more quinqueremes. Events By Place Roman Empire Gladiatorial combat is outlawed in the Roman Empire Still there were naval wars to fight piracy from time to time and the fleet was politically influential because it controlled the grain supply.
Footnotes
References
- Vernon Foley and Werner Soedel, Ancient oared warships, Scientific American 244(4):116–129, April 1981.
- Fik Meijer, A History of Seafaring in the Classical World, Croom and Helm, 1986.
- J. S. Morrison and R. T. Williams, Greek Oared Ships: 900–322 BC, Cambridge University Press, 1968.
- J. S. Morrison, Greek and Roman Oared Warships. With contributions by J. F. Coates. Oxbow Books, Oxford 1996.
- Polybius History
Dictionary
quinquereme
-noun
- (history, nautical) An ancient Carthaginian or Greek galley having five banks of oars.
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