Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
While well-maintained triremes would last up to 25 years, during the Peloponnesian War, Athens had to build nearly 20 triremes a year to maintain their fleet of 300. [ 17 ] The Athenian trireme had two great cables of about 47 mm in diameter and twice the ship's length called hypozomata (undergirding), and carried two spares.
The successor states of Alexander the Great's empire built galleys that were like triremes or biremes in oar layout, but manned with additional rowers for each oar. The ruler Dionysius I of Syracuse ( c. 432 –367 BC) is credited with pioneering the "five" and "six", meaning five or six rows of rowers plying two or three rows of oars.
The "double-banking" theory is supported by the fact that the 4th-century quinqueremes were housed in the same ship sheds as the triremes, and must therefore have had similar width (c. 16 feet (4.9 m)), which fits with the idea of an evolutionary progression from the one type to the other. [13]
An ancient Greek trireme.. Athenian sacred ships were ancient Athenian ships, often triremes, which had special religious functions such as serving in sacred processions (theoria) or embassies or racing in boat races during religious festivals. [1]
After every trip the triremes were pulled ashore in special slides and the hypozomata was re-tightened. The trireme hulls were constructed from planks with closely spaced and pegged mortise and tenon joints. When these are fitted carefully the hull can carry shear stresses well and stay watertight.
Pursuit was limited by the size of the harbour, but the Athenians captured some triremes at sea and then landed to attempt to seize the Spartan ships once they reached land. A fierce fight ensued, in which the Athenians were eventually unable to seize more than a few ships, withdrawing after heavy casualties had been suffered by both sides.
One approach to estimate the number of troops is to calculate the number of marines carried by 600 triremes. Herodotus tells us that each trireme in the second invasion of Greece carried 30 extra marines, in addition to a probable 14 standard marines. [72] Thus, 600 triremes could easily have carried 18,000–26,000 infantry.
Triremes were also not particularly seaworthy and thus needed harbors to shelter from rough weather. A trireme could normally travel around 80 kilometres (50 mi) in a day whereas a trip from Athens to Asia Minor is roughly 300 kilometres (190 mi). Thus, in order to control the Aegean, Athens needed to control the islands' ports for its navy.