Quadriremes

Quadriremes is the Latin name for a class of ancient warship used in Ancient Rome, and before that in the Greek navy. The root is derived from the Latin "remex" which means "rower." The prefix "quad" means "four."

The Ancient Greeks, who devised the class, referred to it as a "tetreres" (from "tetra" which is Ancient Greek for "four"). According to modern historians, the numbers used to describe galleys counted the rows of men on each side, and not the oars. The "four" had four files of men a side, eight files in all. There are three possible reconstructions of the quadrireme:
#one row of oars with four men on each oar. This would be a very broad vessel and is considered unlikely.
#oars at two levels with two men on each oar.
#oars at three levels with two men pulling the top oars and one each on the remaining two. [cite book|author=Morrison, J. S.|title=Greek and Roman Oared Warships|coauthors=Coates, J. F.|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxbow Books|date=1996|chapter=Reconstruction|pages=295-296, 268-269]

"Fours" were introduced into Greek naval warfare in the fourth century BC. The bireme and trireme, two banks and three banks to a side respectively, are considerably older, first attested in the sixth century BC. Hellenistic navies introduced yet larger warships, from "fives" up to "sixteens." [cite book|first=Lionel|last=Casson|title=Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times|edition=2nd Ed.|location=Princeton, NJ|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=1991]

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