Trireme warfare

Sparta’s naval victory in the Peloponnesian War depended on ship contributions from Peloponnesian and central Greek allies and funding from the Persian empire.  At the end of the war, Lysander’s acquisition of captured enemy triremes allowed Sparta to break free from its reliance on allied warships, but not without long-term consequences.  In the Persian War of the following decade, although Sparta was now able to launch a fleet without Corinthian or Theban participation, it lacked resources to maintain its aging ships’ seaworthiness, and its loss of Persian financial support doomed its efforts to recruit and pay adequate naval crews.  The logistical and financial consequences of the breakdown of Sparta’s Peloponnesian War alliances brought about the collapse of its short-lived naval dominance.

EN- Providing livelihoods from most different geographies located on the coast in the ancient Mediterranean Sea, from the climate conditions offered by the period and the geography lived, to make import and export in the direction of economic interactions, but to continue the desire to explore new places, wars that are more important for the primitive period. It is possible to say that the use of sea, river and water channels as an intermediary bridge makes this kind of activities active all the time. In the following periods, this high dependency on each other was supported by the use of ships and boats of antiquity between all the islands and cities on the Mediterranean coast, especially when trade was based on the economy.

TR- Antik dönem Akdeniz’inde kıyıda yer alan çoğu farklı coğrafyalardan insanların, dönemin ve yaşanılan coğrafyanın sunmuş olduğu iklim koşullarından hareketle geçimlerini sağlamak, ekonomik etkileşimler doğrultusunda ithalat ve ihracat gerçekleştirmek ancak ilkel dönem için daha da önem arz eden seyahat, yeni yerler keşfetme arzusu ve savaşları sürdürebilmek adına deniz, nehir ve su kanallarının bir aracı köprü olarak kullanılması bu tarz faaliyetleri her daim aktif kıldığını söylemek mümkündür. Daha sonraki dönemler içerisinde Akdeniz'e kıyısı olan tüm adalar ve kentler arasındaki, özellikle ticaretin ekonomiye dayanmasıyla, birbirine olan bu yüksek bağımlılık antikçağın gemi ve tekne kullanımı ile desteklenmiştir.

In the 1970s, off the west coast of Sicily, a wreck was discovered with apparent links to the battle at the Egadi Islands between the Punics and the Romans. The preserved section of the ship included Punic language characters that suggest the origin of the vessel as Punic. The wreck was excavated in several campaigns. Honor Frost, the director of this project presented in 1981 the final publication of the excavation in  which the wreck is described as a warship. The discovery of a "sister ship“ close by seemed to support Frost’s thesis as the bow of the ship had both a Punic character, as well as remains of a wooden structure, which Frost interpreted as a battering ram. The interpretation, as well as the function of the ram of the so-called "sister ship“ are controversial. In this article, the supportive arguments of the warship thesis will be examined and an alternative function of the bow construction of the "sister ship“ is presented.

To commemorate their victory in the Battle of Salamis, according to Herodotus (8.121-22), the allied Greeks dedicated three captured enemy warships as thank offerings, one each at Isthmia, Sounion, and Salamis. Earlier scholars have proposed in very general terms either seaside locations or intra-sanctuary settings. In this paper, I argue for both the feasibility of over-land transport, and I offer specific intra-sanctuary locations for the dedicated Phoenician warships by considering the relevant topographical, archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence. I also offer a new interpretation for some puzzling remains just south of the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. Once dedicated, the warships both became the sacred property of the resident divinity as they assumed the aspect of monumental wooden sculpture. These triremes are salient examples of votive offerings that could only achieve their full symbolic meaning by prominent positions in the sanctuaries at Isthmia, Sounion and Salamis (the uploaded Pdf is an excerpt only).

An investigation into the absence of ancient Greek triremes in the archaeological record and a study of the battlefield deposition at the site of the Battle of the Aegates, off the Egadi Islands, to determine whether this example could direct future exploration for evidence of ancient Greek sea battles.

The author compares the Athenian and Spartan military organization. During the VII-VI cent. BC the hoplites were primarily represented by middle-class peasantry capable to afford the arms and armor for the military service on their own. Their amount estimated as about a quarter from adult male population of the polis. During the Greek-Persian war Athenians found a way to mobilize maximum of their citizens, having constructed trieres and put their poor as oarsmen on the benches. The newly founded sea power demanded enormous expenses and in 477 BC Athenians imposed a tax for the allies (foros). The money they raised, allowed them to pay their own poor for their work as carpenters, marines and oarsmen. This system allowed Athenians to mobilize more numerous people and to redistribute larger money in comparison with other Greek polities of this time.

Ευχαριστώ το περιοδικό "Ναυτική Ελλάs" για τη φιλοξενία του άρθρου μου σχετικά με την κωπηλατική μου εμπειρία στην τριήρη.
My foreign friends can read it here...
https://stefanosskarmintzos.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/the-modern-trireme-rowers-experience/