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J.C.
Armstrong
Honors 141
Topic Report
October 10, 2002
Naval Warfare
I. Greeks
A. Ships
1. Galley
2. Bireme
3. Trireme
B. Tactics
1. Ram
a. Kyklos
b. Periplus
c. Diekplus
2. Land based strategies
a. Board
b. Catapult
c. Javelin
II. Carthaginians
A. Ships
1. Hepteres (Septirme)
B. Harbor
III. Romans
A. Ships
1. Deceres
A. Tactics
1. Raven (corvus)
IV. Sources
A. Connolly, Peter. Greece and Rome at War. London, 1998
B. Warry, John. Warfare in the Classical World. Norman, Oklahoma,
1995.
Summary:
Meris Hulcher
Honors 141
Summary of Naval Warfare
The Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans all had different ways of
fighting a naval battle. Not only were the ships that each one used
different, but they also had different tactics in the way in which
they would conduct a battle. The ship probably most commonly used
by the Greeks was the trireme, which had three levels of rowers
and one rower per oar. The trireme was very fast and was able to
get up to full speed in just three strokes. The Greeks were most
likely to use their ships to fight. They had three main strategies
when fighting. These were the Kyklos, Periplus, and Diekplus. These
strategies mainly involved ramming other ships, which was costly
because the ship doing the ramming usually sunk along with the ship
that was rammed.
The Carthaginians had ships called Hepteres, or Septirme, which
had seven rowers per station. The Carthaginians would put catapults,
javelins, archers, and even hecklers on the top of their ships.
This made their ships slower, but it made fighting easier because
they were using land tactics as opposed to just ramming other ships.
The Carthaginians also had a defensive military harbor in which
they could safely store and repair their ships. The Carthaginians
took such good care of their ships because most of their battles
were naval battles. Up until the Romans, the Carthaginians were
pretty much ruled the waters.
The Romans were not good at naval warfare. Their strength was in
land battles. Because of this, they originally lost to the Carthaginians
during the Punic Wars. However, once the Romans realized that fighting
a naval battle was useless, they tried to assert land tactics. To
do this, they had to create a new ship. This ship had a bridge that
stuck straight up from the deck and could be swung down and would
attach to another ship. This allowed the Roman soldiers to board
the enemy's ship. Because this was a new creation, the Romans were
able to surprise the Carthaginians and thus beat them in naval battles.
This method, however, was probably not used much after the Punic
War because by then the Romans had control of pretty much the whole
Mediterranean Sea, and no longer needed to fight as many naval battles.