[DCSB] Jorit Wintjes (University of Würzburg), “Diekplous! – understanding ancient naval...

Diekplous! or something thereabouts …

PD Dr. Jorit Wintjes

Lehrstuhl für Alte Geschichte, Universität Würzburg

I. Introduction: Naval Warfare in the Ancient World – quite important…

The Ancients and the Sea.

Large-scale naval warfare did end with Actium, did it not?

Blue – 1st c. AD, Red – 2nd c. AD, Green – 3rd c. AD, Black – 4th c. AD

Some pleasant truths about ancient naval warfare …

1. Ancient naval warfare features prominently throughout ancient history.



2. The importance of naval warfare is reflected by the available evidence. => literary evidence.=> epigraphic evidence.=> iconographic evidence.=> archaeological evidence.



2. The importance of naval warfare is reflected by the available evidence. => literary evidence.=> epigraphic evidence.=> iconographic evidence.=> archaeological evidence.

3. Naval warfare is inherently complex – and was already so in antiquity.


Of known unknowns and unknown unknowns…

Present-day knowledge about ancient land and naval warfare compared


100


sea – land

antiquity


100


30-35

sea – land

antiquity

technology

5-10


100


30-35

sea – land

antiquity

technology

operations

5-100-…

10-15

… and some rather unpleasant truths about ancient naval warfare.

4. Much less knowledge is lost about land warfare than about naval warfare.=> most obvious in weapons & equipment = technology.



5. The available evidence offers little information on technology and significantly less on operations.

=> no corpus of naval “taktika” extant.



5. The available evidence offers little information on technology and significantly less on operations.

=> no corpus of naval “taktika” extant.

6. At sea, even more so than on land, it is all about operations.=> a key part of the overall picture is missing!


A quick example – the Battle of Cape Ecnomus, 256 BC

Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, 1863


~350 Carthaginian ships vs. ~330 Roman ships


A standard reconstruction of the sequence of events.


The nasty truth about Quinqueremes: they are big...



width of the ship: 5m width of the ship including oarsmen: ~ 10m!



10 ships = 50m; 2 squadrons = 150 ships in this „formation“: 750m – outrigger to outrigger!




10 ships = 50m; 2 squadrons = 150 ships in this „formation“: 750m – outrigger to outrigger!


5 ships = 50m; 150 ships in this formation: 1.500m – oars to oars!


What, then, happened at Ecnomus?

~150 ships


What, then, happened at Ecnomus?

~150 ships

half a ship-length in between ships: ~3.750m

one ship-length in between ships: ~6.000m

II. Simulations – a possible solution?

Simulations are everywhere, and have been for quite some time …

Types of simulations

physical simulations

interactive simulations



Environmental change (rivers, coastlines etc.).



Environmental change (rivers, coastlines etc.).

Testing and validating the reconstruction of ancient architecture, technology etc.



Influence of human decision-making on sequence of events



Influence of human decision-making on sequence of events

General process / systems analysis

Systems analysis is great – but what exactly is the system?


large group of ships – fleet



small group of ships – squadron



small group of ships – squadron

Individual ship

A couple of – rather unsettling – statements on simulations


1. Interactive simulations are a proven method for training in and transmitting knowledge of processes ...

=> … which are known in detail … … which is not the case with ancient naval ops!




2. Interactive simulations are a proven method for analyzing systems and processes …

=> where the result does not match expectations ground in knowledge of the nature of the system/process.

There is no such knowledge with ancient naval ops!




2. Interactive simulations are a proven method for analyzing systems and processes …

=> where the result does not match expectations ground in knowledge of the nature of the system/process.

There is no such knowledge with ancient naval ops!

3. Interactive Simulations work best if there is only one variable element in a set of otherwise known factors. “known factors” is not a terribly accurate description

of what is known about ancient naval operations…

III. Diekplous! – The project

The known knowns and the known unknowns …


Olympias from above


Olympias from above

36,9 m

5,5 m 10 m

Available data on ancient naval warfare


1. Significant amount of performance data from trireme reconstruction Olympias.

=> Allows for a moderately precise reconstruction of tactical capabilities

Olympias is a “floating hypothesis” (B. Rankov)!





2. Data on tactical/operational procedures can also be taken from literary sources.

Often poor level of detail.


The kyklos – example involving

24 ships

250 m





2. Data on tactical/operational procedures can also be taken from literary sources.

Often poor level of detail.

3. With polyreme warfare being fundamentally similar to trireme warfare, data is to some extent relevant to Hellenistic and later polyremes…

Really?

Main purpose of Diekplous!


1. Establishing a tactical simulation of a 5th c. trireme allowing to exploit the capabilities and limitations of the type.



2. Putting the individual ship into the context of a multi-ship engagement.

=> dynamics of large-scale unit movement=> C3 – issues





3. Analyzing 5th/4th c. naval history by employing results gained from 1. and 2.





3. Analyzing 5th/4th c. naval history by employing results gained from 1. and 2.

4. Transferring methodology and results to Hellenistic and later polyreme warfare.

[DCSB] Jorit Wintjes (University of Würzburg), “Diekplous! – understanding ancient naval...

Education

Transcript of [DCSB] Jorit Wintjes (University of Würzburg), “Diekplous! – understanding ancient naval...