https://adckl.blogspot.com/2025/03/150625-topic-ships-2-comenius-lxxxviii.html
[1] Going into detail regarding the types, dimensions, capacity and speed of Ancient Roman ships is time-consuming and, depending on sources, inconsistent. Comenius uses the term unirēmis: the English nouns unireme, monoreme (from Greek) refer to galleys with one bank of oars but the term unirēmis itself is not attested, although it makes sense since the following are attested:
[i] birēmis, -is [3/f]: bireme, a ship having two banks of oars
iterum cum praeter Locrōs Rēgium pedibus īret et prōspectīs birēmibus Pompēiānīs terram legentibus suās ratus dēscendisset ad lītus, paene exceptus est (Suetonius)
- When he was traveling again on foot past Locri toward Rhegium, and, having spotted Pompey’s biremes hugging the coast, had gone down to the shore thinking they were his own, he was nearly captured.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bireme
[ii] trirēmis, -is [3/f]; trireme, a ship having three banks of oars
cōnspicātaeque nāvēs trirēmēs duae nāvem D. Brūtī, quae ex īnsignī facile agnōscī poterat (Caesar)
- And two galleys / trireme ships, having spotted the ship of Decimus Brutus, which could easily be recognized by its flag …
ab classe, quae Corcȳrae subducta erat, C. Claudius trirēmēsque Rōmānae … Athēnās missae cum Pīraeum pervēnissent, … (Livy)
- Caius Claudius, and the Roman triremes which had been sent to Athens from the fleet that was laid up at Corcyra … when they had arrived at Piraeeus …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trireme
triēris, -e: (adjective) having three banks of oars, but can also be used as a noun
quia sōlummodo ibi magnificus Dominus noster: locus fluviōrum, rīvī lātissimī et patentēs nōn trānsībit per eum nāvis rēmigum neque triēris magna trānsgrediētur eum (Vulgate)
- Because only there is our Lord magnificent: a place of rivers, very broad and open streams; no galley with oarsmen shall pass through it, nor shall a great trireme cross over it.
rēmex, remigis [3/m]: oarsman; rower
[iii] quadrirēmis [3/f]: quadrireme, a ship having four banks of oars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic-era_warships#Quadrireme
You didn’t need to see these ships in battles and rescue missions; you could go and watch a naval show; here Suetonius is referring to a naumachia, -ae [1/f], the artificial recreation of a sea battle:
nāvālī proeliō in minōre Cōdētā dēfossō lacū birēmēs ac trirēmēs quadrirēmēsque Tyriae et Aegyptiae classis magnō pugnātōrum numerō cōnflīxērunt.
- A lake having been dug in the little Codeta, ships of the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets, containing two, three, and four banks of oars, with a number of men on board, afforded an animated representation of a sea-fight.
nāvālis, -e: naval; proelium, -ī [2/n] nāvāle: naval battle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic-era_warships#Quadrireme
