Quinquereme

The Romans and Punics fought legendary naval battles for control of the Mediterranean Sea. But effective naval warfare required appropriate instruments. The Romans learnt their naval skills from other ancient nations and based their warships on Greek, Etruscan and Carthaginian ships. The most powerful of the warships during the Hellenistic era was the trireme, a type
of galley with three rows of oars on each side. Roman Quinqueremes also had three rows of oars.

Magic eyes

According
to contemporary
beliefs, the eyes painted
on the bow detected underwater reefs and demons surrounding the ship.

’Quinque’ means five in Latin and refers here to the number of oarsmen pulling on a group of oars: 2 in the top row,
2 in the middle
row and 1 at
the bottom row.

Wide deck

The ships were about 37 m long and 4 m wide on average and had wide decks. Beside the rowers and the crew of 30, the ship also carried 120 soldiers.

Mast and square sail

The main mast held one huge
square sail, which helped
the 270 oarsmen when
they had a good wind.

Boarding bridge (corvus)

During the First Punic War, the Romans mounted boarding bridges on their warships.
When they approached an enemy ship, the boarding bridge was lowered. This allowed a firm grip between the ships and provided a route for the soldiers to cross.