12-16-2009, 12:40 AM
In a description of Rome's first quinquiremes during the First Punic Wars, Polybius says the oar / rower system was like this:
"As it was, those who had been given the task of shipbuilding occupied themselves with the construction work, while others collected the crews and began to teach them to row on short in the following way.1 They placed the men along the rowers' benches on dry land, seating them in the same order as if they were on those of an actual vessel, and then stationing the keleustes2 in the middle, they trained them to swing back their bodies in unison, bringing their hands up to them then to move forwards again thrusting their hands in front of them, and to begin and end these movements at the keleustes' word of command."
Footnotes:
1. This practice was necessary because the method of rowing a quinquireme (five men to each oar) is different from that of a trireme (one man per oar); the latter was the largest vessel of which the Romans hitherto had had any experinece.
2. The keleustes called the time, and so regulated the pace and rhythm of the rowing.
Source: The Rise of the Roman Empire, Polybius, Penguin Classics 1979, Book I.21, p. 63.
So the quinquireme's oars had five men per oar, if the footnoter is correct, but this source doesn't say how many banks of oars. If there were two banks, they'd have five men on each oar, I'd think, based on this info.
And there was a man whose job it was to "call time" so the rowing was coordinated.
"As it was, those who had been given the task of shipbuilding occupied themselves with the construction work, while others collected the crews and began to teach them to row on short in the following way.1 They placed the men along the rowers' benches on dry land, seating them in the same order as if they were on those of an actual vessel, and then stationing the keleustes2 in the middle, they trained them to swing back their bodies in unison, bringing their hands up to them then to move forwards again thrusting their hands in front of them, and to begin and end these movements at the keleustes' word of command."
Footnotes:
1. This practice was necessary because the method of rowing a quinquireme (five men to each oar) is different from that of a trireme (one man per oar); the latter was the largest vessel of which the Romans hitherto had had any experinece.
2. The keleustes called the time, and so regulated the pace and rhythm of the rowing.
Source: The Rise of the Roman Empire, Polybius, Penguin Classics 1979, Book I.21, p. 63.
So the quinquireme's oars had five men per oar, if the footnoter is correct, but this source doesn't say how many banks of oars. If there were two banks, they'd have five men on each oar, I'd think, based on this info.
And there was a man whose job it was to "call time" so the rowing was coordinated.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
