Monday 30 November 2009

Whooaaa!


Just a nice illustration which gives a hint of the incredible appearance of the Hellenistic super-ships. This is a coloured version of the cover of Scientific American from 1906. It depicts one of the Nemi ships of Caligula which, although meant for use on a small lake equate with the large polyremes in size. So, the warships did not have the temple, bath house and tivoli on the main deck but they would have had some structures and its the sheer scale which impresses here. Bearing in mind the ancient authors reckon up to 7,000 people could be aboard the largest ancient ships.

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