Introduction.
Throughout the ages, ships have been the most technologically advanced elements of any society (nuclear submarines and space shuttles in the modern era). Ships have also played a huge role in the cultural, societal, military and economic development of most societies. In this short essay I will look into ship development from the late Bronze age to the Athenian golden age, and its effects on ancient societies.
I also need to preface this essay by stating that while I have done my research and have cited many ancient (and some modern) sources, this sort essay does not pertain to be the (absolute) truth. It is mostly meant to spike the interest of the topic so people would read and do their own research. I will also not go into too much details on most topics covered – I will do that at a later date.
The early galleys.
The first ships (the very first vessels were floats, rafts and dugout canoes, but they are not the focus of this essay) were designed for the transport of people and cargo. Such ships were however easy prey for enterprising people who wanted to take other people’s stuff, and thus the first pirates and pirate ships were born. This in return paved the way for ships that could be used to protect shipping, and when states grew in wealth and power, to the development of warships whose sole function was to protect shipping at sea – be it from pirate attacks or from a foreign adversary.
The first known preserved ship is the Khufu ship in Egypt. Ships are also depicted on Ancient Egyptian reliefs and wall paintings. The first known maritime culture and thalassocracy on the other hand was Minos, on the island of Crete. Fortunately for us (but less so for the inhabitants of Minoan Akrotiri), the city of Akrotiri (Santorini) and its surroundings were devastated by a catastrophic volcanic eruption. While by all counts the inhabitants had ample time to evacuate, the city itself was covered in volcanic ash, preserving many frescoes and wall paintings, many of which depicting Minoan ships. In addition, there is also an abundance of archaic vase paintings featuring ships and mythological motifs which have survived to us from all over the Mediterranean world.
The bronze age and early iron age ships can be broadly divided into two types: Roundships (round hulled) and longships, also known as galleys.
The most common ships mentioned in ancient literature are the pentekonters (πεντηκόντερος) (“fifty-oared” galleys), though Homeros mentions also triakonters (τριακόντορος) (“thirty-oared”), as well as twenty-oared galleys.
Roundships were designed for high cargo capacity in mind, while longships were designed for speed. Both types had a mast and a single square sail, but were also equipped with oars and could be rowed by their respective crews.
Roundships had fewer oars (usually around 20) than longships. The primary purpose of a roundship was the transport of bulk-goods and passengers. Longships, however, were used for a variety of roles. They could be used as reconnaissance ships, messenger ships, cargo ships for carrying important or urgent cargo, transports for carrying soldiers, as horse-transports, or as pirate ships. Longships were also used in naval battles, serving as floating platforms for archers, warriors, and hoplites, who used boarding tactics at sea.
The earliest written records of naval battles date from the end of the Bronze Age, when the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma II defeated an Alashiyan fleet. Roughly at the same time, in this second year, Egyptian king Ramesses II destroyed the Sea Peoples’ fleet in the Nile Delta. (1)
The first known naval battle where ships were equipped with rams took place near Corsica (Battle of Alalia, c. 540–535 BCE) between the Phocaeans and a Carthaginian and Etruscan coalition. According to Herodotus, the Phocaeans won a Cadmean victory – despite defeating their opponents, they lost 40 out of 60 ships, with the rams of the remaining ships severely damaged. The Phocaeans, unable to withstand another attack, decided to evacuate their colony on Corsica. (2, 14) Thucydides wrote, that before the Persian Wars, Greek fleets consisted mainly of pentekonters, but that the city states could occasionally also maintain a number of triremes. (3) Whether the Phocaeans had triremes or pentekonters equipped with rams is open for debate. I however, do believe that they had equipped their pentekonters with bronze rams, and as a pentekonter is of a relatively light construction, they did indeed damage their own ships when using ramming tactics.
All good things come from Phoenicia.
The name Phoenicia may derive from the Ancient Greek word Φοῖνιξ (Tyrian purple) or Φοινός (blood-red). (4) However, I personally believe that Phoenicia may have gotten its name from ϝοῖνος (an archaic form of οἶνος, meaning wine). Considering that wine is a more common and certainly tastier commodity than dye, and that Phoenicia was known for its wines, I am of the personal opinion that the name Phoenicia originated from wine. In addition to wine and precious dyes, triremes – purpose built warships with a reinforced construction and three rows of oars – likely originated from Phoenicia. Furthermore, the Phoenician alphabet, which undoubtedly reached Greece via maritime routes, helped Greece re-emerge from the Dark Ages. Therefore, it can be said that all good things come from Phoenicia – except Carthage, if you ask Cato the Elder.
Earliest sources.
Clement of Alexandria (5) writes that the Carthaginians were the first to build triremes, but a few sentences later claims that it was the Sidonians. Either way, there is no doubt the Phoenicians were involved. Herodotus writes that the Egyptian king Necho II built triremes and used them in the Red Sea. (6) He also mentions that Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, built a fleet of 40 triremes, manned them with political dissidents, and sent them to aid the Persian king Cambyses II in his war against Egypt, with a very specific request not to send them back. (7)
Thucydides writes that the first triremes in Hellas were built by the Corinthians. This has often (and most likely incorrectly) been interpreted as meaning that the Corinthians were the first in the world to build triremes, although Thucydides specifically states that Corinth was the first in Hellas to do so. (8)
The earliest sources depicting ships built solely for warfare date from the 7th century BCE. A mural from the palace of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (dated 701 BCE) depicts the evacuation of the Tyrian king Luli from Tyre.
It has been suggested that the wall painting at the palace of Sennacherib depicts both merchant ships and warships (biremes with two ranks of oars) or even triremes (I personally do not see a third row). (9) There is no doubt that the painting depicts the escape of King Luli. The smaller vessels are merchantmen, but the larger warships are generally identified as biremes, or misrepresented triremes. These explanations interpret the protruding element at the bow of the warships as being a bronze ram. If the warships depicted are indeed biremes or triremes, then this is one of the earliest surviving depictions.
On the other hand, numerous archaic vase paintings of triakonters and pentekonters portray a sharp structure (which is often assumed to be a ram) protruding above the waterline at the bow, yet there are no written sources (at least not to my knowledge) that indicate the use of rams in battle prior to Alalia. Moreover, rams would have been largely useless during the bronze age and the Greek dark ages. Firstly, longships and pentekonters were used as pirate vessels, and sinking a ship along with its cargo would not align with good piracy practices. Secondly, ships of that time would not have been structurally strong enough to absorb the forces of a collision without sustaining structural damage to the keel. The battle of Alalia is a good example of this.
Therefore, a much more logical explanation is that the longships did not have rams but rather wave-cutting prows, which improved the hydrodynamics of the vessels and allowed longships to reach speeds of 8–11 knots, while the average speed of merchant ships might have ranged between 2–4 knots. (10)
The need for speed.
The following graph shows the horsepower required to achieve a certain speed on a regular bow shape used on merchantmen, vs a wave-cutting brow, and a ram brow. The difference in speed between a sharp, protruding bow without a ram and a similar bow with a ram is marginal. It should also be stated that a wave-cutting stem also ensures that the ship’s bow does not dip downward into the water at higher speeds. (10) However, since the speed of roundships is relatively slow, they are not affected by this.
According to Wikipedia (this it my only reference to Wikipedia), which cites sources I was unable to access, a single person can sustain 0.1 hp indefinitely, while a fit and trained individual can manage 2.5 hp briefly, and 0.35 hp for a period of several hours. (11)
Considering that the average roundship had a crew of 20 rowers (9) and a fully manned trireme had 170 rowers, we can calculate that an average roundship could generate 2–7 hp, while a fully manned trireme could generate between 17–59.5 hp for several hours. Additionally, assuming that an average roundship or merchant vessel relied more on wind and sails and its crew did not need to be in the same physical shape as a trireme crew, we can estimate the corresponding horsepower values as 2 hp and 60 hp (by rounding up). These figures closely match the graph.
This data is further supported by the trireme Olympias, built in Greece in 1987, which reached a speed of 9 knots. It is also important to emphasize that, while the Athenian fleet was serviced by professional crews, the crew of the Olympias has far less experience in rowing.
The diagram below illustrates the construction of a trireme’s ram (12), which disperses impact energy from ramming. In contrast, pentekonters had a weaker structure, which explains why they sustained irreparable damage when ramming, especially if the ram was directly connected to the keel.
No triremes have survived to us, as those damaged in battle did not sink but remained afloat (they carried insignificant amounts of ballast and cargo: the rowers being the ballast). However, bronze rams have been preserved, along with descriptions from ancient authors and depictions on vase- and wall paintings. There is also a surviving account of a Spartan admiral escaping from battle on a “sunken” trireme (unfortunately, I do not remember the source and could not find it).
From the bronze age collapse and pentekonters to triremes and radical democracy.
With the collapse of the bronze age around 1177 BCE (13), the existing world order disintegrated. The Hittite Empire and Mycenaean civilization was wiped off the map, while the Egyptian empire survived, but was significantly weakened. Trade networks which had connected the world for centuries, if not thousands of years, were shattered. The only ones who not only survived, but thrived in the ensuing chaos, were the seafaring city-states of Phoenicia.
In Greece, Lefkandi, located on Euboea, was one of the few settlements that remained relatively untouched by the collapse and maintained active trade relations with the Phoenicians. In grave #86 at Lefkandi, archaeologists have found the burial of a woman (dated to around 950 BCE), with a significant amount of gold jewelry and valuables of Phoenician origin. Lefkandi also provides the earliest evidence of the adoption of the Greek alphabet, which must have arrived there via Phoenician traders and their ships.
Lefkandi was also the first region in Greece to send out colonies, the earliest being Pithekoussai in the Tyrrhenian Sea and Kyme in the Bay of Naples. These colonies were likely established to gain better access to goods arriving from the western Mediterranean and to reduce dependence of the Phoenicians.
Trade and colonization was done by sea, but the increased movement of ships and goods also led to a rise in piracy. Thucydides writes that many of the more enterprising inhabitants of the Greek islands and coastal areas became pirates, and that in the archaic period piracy was not considered disgraceful. On the contrary, successful raids brought honor and fame to the pirate captains. (15)
Piracy was likely practiced early on in Lefkandi, and the Phocaeans were certainly doing a fair share of piracy of their own. Instead of submitting to Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire, they took their ships and possessions and relocated to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where they caused enough trouble and mayhem by harassing the Carthaginians and Etruscans, which eventually culminated in the previously mentioned battle of Alalia.
Although there is no concrete evidence (I was unable to find any), a piracy is also likely reason why the Argives completely destroyed the well-fortified settlement of Asine around 740 BCE. (16)
Pentekonters and other longships were used for both raiding and trading, especially under Mediterranean conditions, where the primary navigation season in summer was often characterized by calm winds. However, roundships were more suitable for longer journeys and for the transport of less valuable goods and bulk cargo.
Archaic settlements did not have a state-controlled navy, and ships were most likely privately owned, whether by the local rulers, merchants, pirates, or a combination of those. Given that pentekonters were significantly easier and cheaper to build and operate compared to later triremes, any reasonably wealthy individual could afford to own one. Hesiod’s poem Works and Days contains references (17) suggesting that even a relatively poor person could own a ship.
The privately owned ships could then also be used as an ad hoc navy, If a settlement or a city suddenly needed ships for defense or troop transport.
The first recorded instances of city-state navies (likely a mix of pentekonters and triremes) come from Corcyra and Corinth in the mid-6th century BCE (8) and from Samos in the mid-5th century BCE, when Polycrates built a fleet of 40 triremes. (7)
Before the Persian Wars, Athens had only a small fleet of pentekonters and lagged behind other city-states in naval development. It was not until 483/2 BCE when Themistocles successfully persuaded the Athenians to build a huge fleet composed of 200 or more triremes.
Unlike earlier penteconters, triremes were significantly more expensive in terms of construction, maintenance, and crew. A single trireme could cost around 6,000 drachmas (1 talent). The same amount was needed for the crew’s monthly wages, and a similar expense was needed every one to two years for maintenance. The ship sheds (νεώσοικοι) in Piraeus, some of which have partially survived, were not cheap to build and maintain either.
Triremes brought significant changes to the Athenian society. While it is true that Athenian democracy dates back at least to 508/7 BCE, the widespread adoption of triremes in the following years increased the role of the lower social classes (thetes) in society and led to a broader democracy.
Previously, the political influence of the thetes in Athens was limited in comparison to aristocrats and hoplites (who were wealthy enough to afford weapons and armor). However, triremes provided even the poorest of the thetes an opportunity to serve as rowers on a state owned trireme. Given that a fully manned trireme consisted of 170 rowers and that Athens maintained an average of 200 triremes (not including roughly 100 ships that were under maintenance at any given time), this amounted to about 34,000 thetes serving the state, and they were eager to have a say in the matters of state. Additionally, the thetes who served as rowers had two strong arguments for participating in politics: their left arm and the right arm, grown strong from constant rowing.
Trireme diplomacy.
The more triremes Athens maintained and the more successful its navy was in battle, the more conscious the thetes became. Athenian admiral and general Cimon was undoubtedly one of the catalysts (though unwillingly) for this change. As one of the first recorded experts in amphibious warfare, he skillfully combined land forces and naval power to secure victories over the Persians. When the Delian League quietly transformed into the Athenian Empire, the influence and consciousness of the thetes grew even further. In the case of Athens, trireme diplomacy preceded the later gunboat diplomacy by about 2300 years.
The smaller city-states within the Delian League that chose to contribute financially instead of supplying their own ships further strengthened Athenian power. In the early days of the league, paying Athens might have been the economically rational choice. It is also possible that oligarchic city-states understood what would happen if lower classes gained more power and were unwilling to share authority with the people. However, by the time the Delian League had effectively become the Athenian Empire and allied cities harboured thoughts of leaving the alliance, they no longer had ships, funds, or experienced rowers to do so.
Although Athens is today considered in a positive way as the first democratic state, its contemporaries were generally more critical, as can be inferred from Aristotle’s writings. In this regard, I tend to agree with the critiques of ancient authors. Although the Athenians had written competence requirements into their laws, decisions in the Assembly were often driven by emotion, leading to situations where rulings were reversed the very next day; prominent examples being choosing a side in the dispute between Corcyra and Corinth in 433 BCE, the Mytilene debate in 427 BCE, and so on. The decision to execute six admirals after the Battle of Arginusae, only to later realize that the fleet had lost its most experienced commanders, is not the brightest of decisions either. Athens did not gain sympathy for sentencing Socrates to death, either.
In conclusion, whether democracy is to be considered good or bad is irrelevant. What is certain is that without ships, trade and the exchange of ideas, but above all, triremes, there would have been no Athenian Empire, no Athenian golden age, and no Athenian democracy to speak of.
Sources:
- The Philistines and Aegean Migration at the End of the Late Bronze Age By Assaf Yasur-Landau, 165.
- Thucydides, 1.14
- Herodotus, The Histories 1.166.
- Wiktionary – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%A6%CE%BF%E1%BF%96%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%BE#Ancient_Greek
- Stromata, I 16.36
- Herodotos, The Histories 2.159
- Herodotos, The Histories 3.44
- Thucydides, The Histories 1.13.2-5
- Ships and seamanship in the ancient world, (chapter four), Lionel Casson
- An Engineering History of the Ram Bow From Ancient Times to the 21st Century – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjF6OVaQBac
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower
- Why “Threes”? The Influence of Triremes on Mediterranean History – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMXmQT8Xg8g
- 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric H. Cline.
- Thucydides, 1.13.6
- Thucydides. 1.5.1
- When two sites go to war. Settlement destruction in the late eighth century BC. – https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/when-two-sites-war-settlement-destruction-late-eighth-century-bc/
- Hesiod, WD 624