Roman Boats

By: Nupur Brahmbhatt

Poseidon- god of the Sea

He controlled what a sea journey could go like: good or bad.

Sometimes, if Poseidon granted them a great and safe journey, they would build a
______or sacrifice to him.

Types of Boats
• The Liburnian

• A Type of Roman warship

• Romans adopted it from the pirates in the first century BC

• The Trireme

• Used in Roman Navy as a replacement for the Liburnian

• A dominant warship

• The Dhow

• This type of boat is initially an Arab/Indian boat. I was created in India, but
the Arabs used it. Then the Greeks and Romans used it and their pictorial
representation is the only evidence to see what it looked like.

• The Dromon

• These fast galleys of racers. It was the supply ship and it moved their supplies
as fast as possible to other places when they were being attacked

• The Quadrireme

• It has a bronze armored ram positioned on the bow of the ship so that it can
ram into enemy ships while hurting those ships, but not itself.

• The Bireme

• Used for commerical shipping and naval warfare

• This was also bronze armored

 • Roman Merchant ships

• These are trading ships we will see later where these ships usually go to trade.

The Uses of Boats

Mythology

• The Kraken – this was a sea squid that lived in the deep ocean

• Boats in Great Epics

a. Great Epics

a. The Iliad- First, we see Paris takes Helen from Menelaus on a ship.
Then Menelaus and Agamemnon come to fight by traveling with
their ships to attack Troy.

b. The Odyssey- After the Trojan war, Odysseus tries to go back

home, but since Poseidon hate him, he curses Odysseus and makes
his journey take ten years. He has many life changing incidents
trying to sail back home:

a. Scylla and Charybdis- they are the sea ________ that

Odysseus survives from twice, but it kills his crewmen.

b. Sirens

• Odysseus also reaches Ithica, but is blown back to

Calypso’s island by the bag of winds

Trade
Travel

Make journeys to see Pan- Hellenic games in respect of the Gods:

• Olympic Games - the most important and prestigious of the Games, held every four years
near Elis, in honour of Zeus; the prize was a wreath of wild olive
• Pythian Games - held every four years, near Delphi, in honour of Apollo; the prize was a
wreath of laurel
• Nemean Games - held every two years, near Nemea, also in honour of Zeus; the prize
was a wreath of wild celery
• Isthmian Games - held every two years, near Corinth, in honour of Poseidon; the prize
was a wreath of pine

Roman Navy

• The Roman navy was not as important as the Roman army

– Punic Wars, this is probably the first time they actually needed the Navy

– The second most important time the Navy was needed was the Battle of
Actium.