Fun With Friends?
J. M. Pescado:
That's actually a myth. Slaves and prisoners were not typically used in war galleys. Usually professional rowers were used.
ZephyrZodiac:
I would imagine, if all the slaves and prisoners combined efforts and stopped rowing together, there wouldn't have been enough slave-drivers to force them to start again, and the enemy ship would have the advantage!
J. M. Pescado:
Plus there's the fact that rowing a warship efficiency in battle requires a level of discipline and training you won't get out of common prisoners or slaves. Thus why professional rowers were used. Galleys rowed by slaves were typically not used for war.
veilchen:
Oh, I know that they were not using prisoners and slaves in the actual battle-ships. In fact, the Romans were not even the first ones to use the galeere (galley, galleon). Clever as they were, they copied the design from the Catharges (I really don't know the english name for the Cathargian people) when a fleet of cathargian ships flooded, sank, and were stranded on the italian shore after a sea-battle in the Punic wars.
The slaves and prisoners were of better use in the mines and the commerce ships. It was just, shall we say, artistic rendering a la Ben Hur (and I don't even like Charlton Heston, never have). It makes such a better dramatic picture.
breyerii:
Well, you know, Romans were better on land battles. They resorted to naval warfare only because the Carthaginians were such a thorn in their side.
Notice that they invented the rostrum to be more "on their own ground" even at sea.
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