Origins Trireme

phoenician warship 2 rows of oars, relief nineveh, ca. 700 bc

depictions of two-banked ships (biremes), or without parexeiresia (the outriggers, see below), common in 8th century bc , later vases , pottery fragments, , @ end of century first references three-banked ships found. fragments 8th-century relief @ assyrian capital of nineveh depicting fleets of tyre , sidon show ships rams, , fitted oars pivoted @ 2 levels. have been interpreted two-decked warships, , triremes.

modern scholarship divided on provenance of trireme, greece or phoenicia, , exact time developed foremost ancient fighting ship. clement of alexandria in 2nd century, drawing on earlier works, explicitly attributes invention of trireme (trikrotos naus, three-banked ship ) sidonians. according thucydides, trireme introduced greece corinthians in late 8th century bc, , corinthian ameinocles built 4 such ships samians. interpreted later writers, pliny , diodorus, mean triremes invented in corinth, possibility remains earliest three-banked warships originated in phoenicia.