Diplomacy in potential hostile regions

[Nathan Ross]

My point is that the cliche about the galley slave is still just a cliche and never really existed in Roman society - not even on merchant ships.

I'd certainly agree it's a cliche - but my point is that, although the majority of merchant ships used sails most or all of the time, some did use oars; and since we know that slaves were used as crewmen aboard merchant ships (as referenced in the Theodosian Code and elsewhere) it's quite likely that at least some of these oarsmen would have been slaves too.

So we should perhaps not be too dogmatic about this or that thing having 'never really existed' (although I know we've been here before! )