12-16-2009, 07:10 PM
Yeah, it's assumed that they just built a sort of half-ship. That entire story in Polybios is slightly suspect though, as he tries to pretend Rome was completely new to the whole naval warfare thing at the start of the first Punic War, while this was patently not the case.
Anyway, it's very likely there were no 4th and 5th men per oar on a quinquereme. It'd make the ship enormously wider for one, though inevitably dekeres and larger would have to have had such an arrangement.
Anyway, it's very likely there were no 4th and 5th men per oar on a quinquereme. It'd make the ship enormously wider for one, though inevitably dekeres and larger would have to have had such an arrangement.
