Ship Level Tactics In Ancient Greece

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What has been mentioned are all the ship level tactics that the ancient Greeks especially, and other peoples as well, used. There were also fleet level tactics and strategies that were used by the Greeks. One was called the ‘periplous’ (sailing around). This entailed suddenly sailing to the right or left or both, of an enemy fleet with two groups of one’s fleet to encircle or outflank the enemy and attack in the rear where they were most vulnerable, while a third group would attack from the front as a holding force. There was the ‘diekplous’ tactic (which was derived from the word for ramming, as previously mentioned), in this case the tactic was referred to as ‘sailing out through’. This involved a dense force of the friendly fleet’s center

This meant that larger ships than the trireme began to be used, such as the quadriremes or quinqueremes, which had as many as 240 to 300 rowers, and up to 80 marines. These ships were much more stable when carrying larger loads and larger groups of passengers and crew, than the trireme with its low center of gravity, which was one of the reasons for the trireme being so fast and maneuverable, but also the cause of its inherent instability in rough seas. Thus the focus shifted to boarding actions and attacks with flaming projectiles from the several catapults that could be carried by these larger ships, as opposed to the one catapult carried by some triremes. Triremes could also be unarmoured (aphractos), like the Athenian Triremes, as opposed to armoured (phractos). The Athenians built their ships in this way to facilitate the fast, rapid complex manoeuvres that they were experts at, and which they got their strength and success from. Other factions had armoured triremes, with closed upper decks and re-enforced hulls, unlike the Athenians open upper decks, which exposed the top most tier of Athenian rowers. While the Athenian triremes had the advantage of being faster and lighter due to being unarmoured, they were also more vulnerable to missile attacks and could be rammed more easily. The factions that armoured their triremes could attack enemy triremes with head on ramming tactics and survive, while other lighter triremes could not do this with ease. The light triremes could only attack from the front by approaching head on more to one side or the other, and then turning at the last moment to attack inwards at the enemy’s bow while avoiding their ram. If the attacking trireme did not do this then both