Quinquereme

A quinquereme is the polyreme rated as a five, the heavy oared warship of the Hellenistic kingdoms and the standard battle ship of the Roman and Carthaginian fleets in the Punic Wars. The rating means five rowers per vertical section across two or three banks, not five oar levels. Polybius records Rome building a quinquereme fleet from a captured Carthaginian model in 261 to 260 BC and equipping it with the corvus boarding bridge, winning at Mylae in 260 BC. A crew ran to roughly 300 rowers plus marines.