Dromon

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File:Byzantines repel the Russian attack of 941.jpg

Illustration from the Madrid Skylitzes showing the Byzantine fleet repelling the Rus' attack on Constantinople in 941, and the use of the spurs to smash the oars of the Rus' vessels. Boarding actions and hand-to-hand fighting determined the outcome of most naval battles in the Middle Ages.Template:Sfn

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The dromon (from Greek δρόμων, Template:Transliteration, Template:Lit.), a type of galley, became the most important type of warship of the Byzantine navy<ref>Template:Harvnb: "At sea, the succession of the dromon to the Roman bireme {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and its predecessors [...] has been presented in the conventional historiography of the maritime history of the Mediterranean as marking a transition from Rome to Byzantium."</ref> from the 5th to 12th centuries AD, after which the Italian-style galley superseded it. It developed from the ancient liburnian,<ref>Template:Harvnb: "There can be little doubt that the word dromōn became used for some war galleys, or perhaps rather for some specific type of war galley, because these galleys were unusually fast, faster than the standard Roman {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} war galleys of the late Empire [...]"</ref> which was the mainstay of the Roman navy during classical antiquity.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>

The Middle English word dromond and the Old French word dromont derive from the Greek word; these names identified any particularly large medieval ship.<ref>The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, "Dromond".</ref>

Evolution and featuresEdit

File:1-10 model reconstructions of Roman ships, 5- Dromon of the Byzantine navy (10-12th centuries AD), left- Bireme of the Neumagen Type (220 - 230 AD), Museum für Antike Schiffahrt, Mainz (34729616210).jpg

Reconstruction (top) in 1:10 scale of a bireme dromon's hull, at the Museum of Ancient Seafaring, Mainz

File:Haifa-maritime-museum-Byzantine-Dromon-9c-3.jpg

Reconstruction of a monoreme dromon at the Israeli National Maritime Museum, Haifa

The appearance and evolution of medieval warships is a matter of debate and conjecture; until recently, no remains of an oared warship from either ancient or early medieval times had been found and information had to be gathered by analyzing literary evidence, crude artistic depictions and the remains of a few merchant vessels (such as the 7th-century Pantano Longarini wreck from Sicily, the 7th-century Yassi Ada ship and the 11th-century Serçe Limanı wreck). Only in 2005–2006 did archaeological digs for the Marmaray project in the Harbor of Theodosius (modern Yenikapi) uncover the remains of over 36 Byzantine ships from the 6th to 10th centuries, including four light galleys of the galea type.Template:Sfn

The accepted view is that the main developments which differentiated the early dromons from the liburnians and that henceforth characterized Mediterranean galleys, were the adoption of a full deck (Template:Transliteration), the abandonment of the rams on the bow in favor of an above-water spur and the gradual introduction of lateen sails.Template:Sfn The reasons for the abandonment of the ram (Template:Langx, Template:Langx) are unclear. Depictions of upward-pointing beaks in the 4th-century Vatican Vergil manuscript may well illustrate that the ram had already been replaced by a spur in late-Roman galleys.Template:Sfn Byzantinists John Pryor and Elizabeth Jeffreys argue that the purpose of the spur was to allow the dromon to ride up on an enemy's oars and crush them, destroying its propulsion, and point out that one of the medieval Latin terms for spur, "calcar", is derived from the verb "to trample".Template:Sfn One possibility is that the change occurred because of the gradual evolution of the ancient shell-first mortise and tenon hull construction method, against which rams had been designed, into the skeleton-first method, which produced a stronger and more flexible hull, less susceptible to ramming.Template:Sfn By the early 7th century, the ram's original function had been forgotten, if we judge by Isidore of Seville's comments that they were used to protect against collision with underwater rocks.Template:Sfn Authors have suggested that it was introduced into the Mediterranean by Arabs, possibly with an ultimate origin in India. The discovery of new depictions and literary references in recent decades has led scholars to antedate the appearance of the lateen sail in the Levant to the late Hellenistic or early Roman period.<ref name="Casson243–245">Template:Harvnb.</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb.; Template:Harvnb.; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Not only the triangular, but also the quadrilateral version were known, used for centuries (mostly on smaller craft) in parallel with square sails.<ref name="Casson243–245"/><ref name="DromonLateen">Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Belisarius's fleet during the Vandalic War, as described by Procopius of Caesarea, was apparently at least partly fitted with lateen sails, making it probable that by that time the lateen had become the standard rig for the dromon, with the traditional square sail gradually falling from use in medieval navigation.Template:Sfn<ref name="DromonLateen"/> These 6th-century dromons were single-banked ('monoreme') ships of probably 50 oars, arranged with 25 oars on each side.Template:Sfn Again unlike Hellenistic vessels, which used an outrigger, these extended directly from the hull.Template:Sfn In the later two-banked ('bireme') dromons of the 9th and 10th centuries, the two oar banks (Template:Transliteration) were divided by the deck, with the first oar bank below and the second oar bank above deck; these rowers were expected to fight with the ship's marines in boarding operations.Template:Sfn The historian Christos Makrypoulias suggests an arrangement of 25 oarsmen beneath and 35 on the deck on either side for a dromon of 120 rowers.Template:Sfn The length of these ships was probably about 32 meters.Template:Sfn Most contemporary vessels had a single mast (Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration), the larger bireme dromons probably needed at least two masts to maneuver, assuming that a lateen sail for a ship this size would have reached unmanageable dimensions.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The ship was steered by means of two quarter rudders at the stern (Template:Transliteration), which also housed a tent (Template:Transliteration) that covered the captain's berth (Template:Transliteration).Template:Sfn The prow (Template:Transliteration) featured an elevated forecastle (Template:Transliteration), below which the siphon for the discharge of Greek fire projected; secondary siphons could also be carried amidships on either side.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A pavesade (Template:Transliteration), on which marines could hang their shields, ran around the sides of the ship, providing protection to the deck crew.Template:Sfn Larger ships also had wooden castles (Template:Transliteration) on either side between the masts, similar to those attested for the Roman liburnians, providing archers with elevated firing platforms.<ref name="Galley104">Template:Harvnb.</ref> The bow spur (Template:Transliteration) was intended to ride over an enemy ship's oars, breaking them and rendering it helpless against missile fire and boarding.Template:Sfn

The four Template:Transliteration ships uncovered in the Yenikapi excavations, dating to the 10th–11th centuries, are of uniform design and construction, suggesting centralized manufacturing. They have a length of about Template:Convert, and are built of European Black Pine and Oriental plane.Template:Sfn

VariantsEdit

By the 10th century, there were three main classes of bireme warships of the general dromon type, as detailed in the inventories for the expeditions sent against the Emirate of Crete in 911 and 949: the Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), so named because it was manned by an Template:Transliteration of 108 men; the Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), crewed with up to 120–160 men, its name either implying an origin in the region of Pamphylia as a transport ship or its crewing with "picked crews" (from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 'all tribes'); and the Template:Transliteration proper, crewed by two Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In Constantine VII's De Ceremoniis, the heavy Template:Transliteration is said to have an even larger crew of 230 rowers and 70 marines; the naval expert John H. Pryor considers them as supernumerary crews being carried aboard, while Makrypoulias suggests that the extra men correspond to a second rower on each of the upper-bank oars.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A smaller, single-bank ship, the Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 'single-banked') or Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, from which the term "galley" derives), with Template:Circa men as crew, was used for scouting missions but also in the wings of the battle line.Template:Sfn

Three-banked ('trireme') dromons are described in a 10th-century work dedicated to the Template:Transliteration Basil Lekapenos. However, this treatise, which survives only in fragments, draws heavily upon references on the appearance and construction of a classical Greek trireme, and must therefore be used with care when trying to apply it to the warships of the middle Byzantine period.<ref name="Pryor84">Template:Harvnb.</ref>Template:Sfn The existence of trireme vessels is, however, attested in the Fatimid navy in the 11th and 12th centuries, and references made by Leo VI to large Arab ships in the 10th century may also indicate trireme galleys.<ref name="Pryor108">Template:Harvnb.</ref>

For cargo transport, the Byzantines usually commandeered ordinary merchantmen as transport ships (Template:Transliteration) or supply ships (Template:Transliteration). These appear to have been mostly sailing vessels, rather than oared.Template:Sfn The Byzantines and Arabs also employed horse-transports (Template:Transliteration), which were either sailing ships or galleys, the latter certainly modified to accommodate the horses.Template:Sfn Given that the Template:Transliteration appear originally to have been oared horse-transports, this would imply differences in construction between the Template:Transliteration and the Template:Transliteration proper, terms which otherwise are often used indiscriminately in literary sources. While the Template:Transliteration was developed exclusively as a war galley, the Template:Transliteration would have had to have a special compartment amidships to accommodate a row of horses, increasing its beam and hold depth.Template:Sfn

CitationsEdit

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General and cited sourcesEdit

Template:Sailing Vessels and Rigs Template:Byzantine Empire topics