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The Phocaeans, like the Elizabethan navigators, were buccaneers (cf. 166. 1 and Dionysius of P., vi. 17 n.) as well as traders; hence the character of their ships. The penteconter was the main Greek ship-of-war in the sixth century, although Thucydides (i. 13. 2-3) says that the Corinthians were building triremes by 700 B.C. (this is his meaning, in spite of Torr, A. S. p. 4, n. 8). The Samian and the Phocaean navies were mainly composed of penteconters; they had, however, a few triremes (Thuc. i. 14. 1). H.'s details as to Samos (contrast iii. 39. 3 and 44. 2) confirm this view, that the navies of the period were mixed. Thucydides further seems to suggest that large fleets of triremes were first formed in Sicily and at Corcyra. The lighter penteconter would be used in preference for a long voyage or for a piratical raid. In the penteconter there were twenty-five oars a side; but the principle of superimposed banks may be as old as the Homeric Catalogue (Il. ii. 510—the Boeotian ships have 120 men each; cf. Thuc. i. 10. 4). For its use in Phoenician warships as early as 700 B.C. cf. Torr, p. 4, and figs. 10 and 11.

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