Description
The 'five', called a quinquereme in Latin and a penteres in Greek, was a ship first used by the Syracusans against the Carthaginians sometime around 398BC. Like other polyremes, a term meaning many-oared, the chances were that it did not have five banks of oars but that the word 'oar' was used to mean 'rower'. In such a case, the arrangement of rowers would be two-two-one going up from the waterline. It makes sense to keep as much weight as possible low in the vessel to help its stability; a high centre of gravity makes any ship liable to capsize if struck from the side. The quinquereme, then, would be a formidable vessel both in terms of appearance and combat value. With a large fighting contingent aboard and plenty of deck space, this heavy vessel could cope with most enemies and threats.
Recruited from amongst Rome's poor and those too young to fight as hastati, the velites were the Roman army’s light infantry. They wore wolf skin head-dresses which are thought to have some totemic significance, although were also worn to induce fear in their enemies. At the Battle of Zama in 202BC, when Scipio Africanus confronted the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, it was the velites who helped fend off his initial elephant charge, utilising their light armour and weapons to move quickly around them. They harassed the elephants to a frenzy while the cavalry blew horns to disorientate the beasts. Hannibal had hoped to break the Roman lines with his elephants; instead, many of the frightened beasts turned on the Carthaginians. Those elephants who didn’t crash through their own lines were caught in a cleverly orchestrated manoeuvre, whereby the Romans carefully channelled them through gaps made between the cohorts' formation.
