Phoenician galley

Type Object Region Mediterranean Time c. -600–-200

The Phoenician galley was the Mediterranean's premier oceangoing vessel of the first millennium BCE, combining a slender hull, multiple oar banks, an…

Timeline

c. -900–-700Tyre and Sidon · LebanonPhoenician coastal city-states, driven by Lebanese cedar and Mediterranean trade needs, developed a prototype galley with a slender, high-sided, upswept bow and stern, using single or double oar banks for coastal commerce and convoy escort.
c. -600–-400Carthage and the Strait of Sicily · TunisiaAs colonial outposts moved west, the Phoenician galley evolved at Carthage and elsewhere into a more heavily armed bireme warship with a ram, boarding marines, and sails, becoming the core force for controlling western Mediterranean sea lanes and contesting Sicily.
c. -300–-200Sicily and Tunisian waters · Strait of SicilyThe Carthaginian navy inherited and improved the Phoenician galley system, developing mature five-tier oar and boarding tactics before and during the Punic Wars; after Rome captured and copied them, the Mediterranean galley tradition entered the Roman-Hellenistic naval stage.

Sources

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant — Margreet L. Steiner, Ann E. Killebrew (eds.) (2014)
Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World — Lionel Casson (1971)