Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Quadriremis

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

QUADRIRE'MIS (τετρήρης). A war-galley propelled by four banks (ordines) of oars on each of its sides. (Plin. H. N. vii. 57. Cic. Verr. ii. 5. 33.) The illustration (Quadriremis/1.1), copied from a medal of the Emperor Gordian, though too minute and imperfect to be received as a complete representation of a quadrireme, yet affords a valuable and most satisfactory authority respecting the chief point which distinguished the class to which it belonged, viz. the position and rating of its oarage. It will be perceived that four separate banks, in tiers superimposed one above the other, are distinctly expressed by the four horizontal lines indicating the separation of each bank, and the diagonal position of each file of oars, by the angular termination of their extremities on the left side of the entire range; thus plainly demonstrating that the principle followed in disposing and reckoning the oarage of a quadriremis, was the same as that practised in the BIREMIS and TRIREMIS, the illustrations under which words, being upon a larger scale, and from more detailed models, will show the matter in a clearer light.

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