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submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Fun fact! In both Ancient Greece and Rome, rowers were not, as commonly thought of in the modern day, slaves, but rather free men or citizens. Coordinated rowing in the heat of battle takes skill, after all - a skill one might not be motivated to exercise in favor of one's captors when push comes to shove!

[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago

In both Ancient Greece and Rome slaves were kinda expensive. It made more sense to hire free men who would expect a share of some bounty and improvements in their social perception, if they survived.

Also the rows were not the same as in Venetian galleys, one oar per man against one huge oar per few slaves, losses among rowers purely due to collision of ships were smaller, mobility of rowers to fight when ships got close was bigger. Venetian rowers had to be trained like machines and worked to death like machines, for the oars to move at all. But the resulting efficiency was bigger.

Purely economical reasons.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I thought it was Ben Afleck.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

"Yes, I lift weights at the gymnasion, how could you tell?"

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I think with all the rowing there was no time or need for gymnasion visits.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
64 points (98.5% liked)

Illustrations of history

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This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!

Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to [email protected]

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Photos of the past should go to [email protected]

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