How

important
was the sea
to Ancient
Greece
Warships

Merchant Ships
 Migration

Colonies
The Greek warships were called trireme because they had three rows of oars on each
side. These were located at different heights. They also had two masts each with a sail.
They had two sails to go faster. They needed to go faster to outmaneuver the enemies
and hit them with the ram they had infront of it. They had ropes to lower the sails and
their bottom was flat to land ashore. The back part had an aplustre mostly for
decoration and the trierarch’s chair, which was were the commander/general/leader
went to get protection from arrows.
Merchant ships consisted of one mast with a sail and no oars. They had a large hull for
storage and a flat bottom like the trirremes to land ashore. They were usually 13-15
meters long. As they weren’t warships, they were used for trade and migration across
the Mediterranean.
The trirremes were more complex than the merchant ships in many ways. First, the
trirremes had three rows of oars per side unlike the merchant ships which had none.
Second, the triremes had an aplusture that the merchant ships didn’t have. Third, the
triremes had two sails whereas the merchant ships had one.
This map represents the migration of the Ancient Greek population in the
Mediterranean Sea. We can observe that they looked for places that had the same
natural structure as Athens: sea, low ground and a hill.
People who migrated were often people who couldn’t pay debts, unemployed people,
peasants looking for land and people fleeing tyrannical governments. The government
often funded these migrations because it meant that the unemployed or in debt
people would get out causing no problems.

Messina:
Messina was a greek colony that was established in the north-east of the island of
Sicily, near the Italian Peninsula in the 8th century BCE. The colony however was initially
called Zancle because of the shape of its natural harbor. It had its coast with a harbour,
a plain area and a hill behind, making it look like the Greek natural structure. It was
also the first city the Romans ever conquered outside the Italian Peninsula.
Hemeroskopeion:
Hemeroskopeion was a colony that acording to one of many still in debate theories
was located in the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula in nowadays Alicante.
Archeologists and historians still don’t agree with this. It was founded in the 5 st century
BCE by the Focians, who came from another Greek colony called Fochis. It had the
same natural structure as Messina to look like Athens.

Massalia:
Massalia was a Greek colony found in southern France in the Mediterranean coast Its
foundation was in the 6th century BCE by Greek migrants from Sicily, near Italy.