Assault Tetreres, Late Carthaginian Hoplites

Description

There is a good deal of debate as to how large ancient warships worked; the principles are understood, but the details are not always so clear. A Roman 'quadreme' or Greek 'tetreres' would seem to have four rows of oars if the name is translated literally. However, it is unclear how four sets of oars each with one rower apiece could be used without them getting in a terrible tangle even with a magnificently trained crew, or how the top set of rowers would be able to handle the extremely long oars pitched at a steep angle and still produce any power. The chances are that the term 'oar' had become synonymous with 'rower' and that the lowest bank had more than one man per oar. The other option was to go back to a double row of oars, with two men apiece. Two banks of oars would also have made for a cheaper construction task for each ship. Either way, the result was a ship that could rival the lighter trireme in speed, yet had more deck space for a large fighting contingent or artillery pieces.

Hoplites date back to the wars between the Greek city-states in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. During the Greco-Persian Wars most hoplites wore a Corinthian-style bronze helm, and a cuirass of bronze or stiffened linen or canvas. They were armed with a short sword and an iron-tipped spear with a bronze counterbalance butt-spike. Hoplites were named, though, after the round hoplon shield they carried. The hoplon-and-spear combination required them to fight as a phalanx, a block of spearmen some eight ranks deep. When closed up, each man would find shelter behind the shield of his neighbour, creating a wall of bristling spear-points. While all hoplites were originally citizen-soldiers, full-time mercenaries took over and became the standard fighting unit of the Greek world. Later, under Phillip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, the shield became smaller, while the spear developed into the five metre sarissa pike. Many armies adopted the phalanx of hoplites as a tactical unit because it was very successful in battle.