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| Ships and the
Greeks |
The Greece by the fifth century B.C. had transformed
the oared war galley into the most deadly naval weapon of the age.
The Greek trireme, powered by three banks of oars on each side,
shattered the mighty fleet of Persia in the famous sea battle of
Salamis (September 21, 480 B.C.) in which over 200 Persian ship
were lost in exchange for less than 40 Greek ones.
Though the trireme carried masts for sailing when was in the right
direction, it fought under oars. It's 170 rowers were not
salves but free men, working to cripple enemy ship by smashing off
their oars. Once this had been done, the trireme closed in to allow
the soldiers and archers on its upper fighting deek to board and
capture the enemy ship.
After the great victory over Persia st Salamis, there were many
sea fights between trireme fleets in the long wars between Athens
and Sparta (460-404 B.C.), which ended with the last Athenian fleet
beaten at Aegospotami in 405 B.C.). Heavier galleys gradually replaced
the trieme. |
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 The
trireme was rowed by 85 men a side: thranites on the top bank, 27
Gygited on the middle bank, and 27 thalamltes on the lowest bank.
The thranites rowed from an outrigger extending from the side, giving
the oars more leverage against the water. |
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| The triremes
main weapon was its underwater ram. |
This Painting
shows a Greek galley setting sail. At the stern, on the right, can
be seen the two steering oars and the ladder used by the crew as
a gangplank. |
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| One of the
ten heavily armored soldiers or hoplites who formed the trireme's
fighting force. The hoplites defended their own ship from the upper
deck or boarded enemy ships crippled by ramming attacks. |
Side view of a triremes ram bow, shown on a Greek cion. |
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