Fire Pot Dieres, Late Libyan Hoplites

Description

The waterline ram was first mounted on a vessel in around 850BC. Warships and naval tactics were transformed. Ships were no longer platforms for infantry battles on the water; the ship itself became the weapon. Galleys changed as the new reality sank in. Ramming at speed would hole and sink an enemy, therefore slimmer, faster, handier ships were required. More speed on demand obviously required more oars a fast ship with a single row of oars ended up being stupidly, impractically long. The solution, then, was to put in a second set of oars above the first, but slightly offset to allow for rowers' benches. These biremes, a Latin word meaning 'two oars', or dieres, the Greek equivalent, were no longer than previous designs but had twice the number of rowers. They were fast, manoeuvrable, and could carry a fighting contingent. Some nations also gave their bireme crews fire pots; these clay pots filled with oil and pitch were hurled at enemy ships in the entirely reasonable hope of setting them ablaze.

Recruited from among descendants of Phoenician settlers and the native Lebu, Garamantian, and Berber peoples of the Sahara these troops were the largest non-mercenary Carthaginian contingent in the army. Colonising the African coast from around the 1st millennium BC, the Phoenicians founded Carthage and other cities, later known as Leptis Magna and Sabratha. Important trading centres, they acted alongside Tingis, which was founded by their Carthaginian descendants, and the Greek colony of Cyrene as gateways into Africa and the western Mediterranean. By the 5th century BC, however, the three Libyan cities had passed under the control and protection of Carthage and its mercantile dominance. Mixing together a variety of eastern and Saharan customs, and influenced by contact with much of the Mediterranean through their trading network, the Liby-Phoenicians were varied in their style of dress and armament.