Quadrireme and quinquereme (polyremes of Dionysius I)
Cuatrirreme y quinquerreme (polirremes de Dionisio I)
- Date
- c. 399 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
- Credited to
- Dionysius I of Syracuse and his engineers
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Warships larger than the trireme, with more rowers per bank, which Dionysius I had built for his war against Carthage. They became the core of the Hellenistic fleets and of the Roman navy in the Punic Wars.
The attribution to Dionysius comes from Diodorus Siculus; the exact arrangement of rowers (not simply one bank per number) is still debated.
What it led to
- large-scale Hellenistic fleets
- the quinquereme as the battle line ship of the Punic Wars
- a naval arms race between Syracuse, Carthage and Rome