Boats the way the Romans did them

September 10, 2023 6:07 PM

What did the Roman ships, or rather boats, that the Romans used to advance deep into the region along the Rhine and Danube and later used to patrol the river boundaries look like? How were they constructed, by whom and with what materials and methods?

Prof. Dr. Boris Dreyer, an expert in ancient history, has been exploring these questions in a very special way since 2016, when he began reconstructing and testing Roman river boats, taking them as far as the Black Sea.

Youtube playlist documenting the project (in German but the auto translated to English subtitles are good).

posted by Mitheral (9 comments total)

Consider the obligatory Ship Of Thebes comment to have been made.
posted by hippybear at 6:34 PM on September 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Memoirs of Hadrian isn't about boats, but he mentions investing in the infrastructure of Roman Empire frontiers.
posted by ovvl at 7:10 PM on September 10, 2023

Ship Of Thebes

Thebes
Theses
Theseus
posted by zamboni at 8:31 PM on September 10, 2023 [12 favorites]

Remis velisque!
posted by mpark at 11:44 PM on September 10, 2023

What’s the question? Didn’t these guys read “Asterix and Obelisk” as kids? There boats look exactly like that! Like, duh.

(More interesting is the extended prow, or uh ‘nose’ at the front - likely to lengthen the water-line thus allowing the boat to go faster. Triksy Romans!)
posted by From Bklyn at 12:21 AM on September 11, 2023

Cool how similar they are to the classic image of a Viking ship, with the arrayed shields. Where I'd always pictured Vikings storming beaches, I can now imagine them patrolling the interior waterways of captured territory, with the occasional rock or arrow coming from the bushes.

Please forgive the self promotion but I am very much about this sort of experimental archeology.
posted by brachiopod at 3:28 AM on September 11, 2023 [7 favorites]

They found a few roman ship wrecks close to Utrecht.
posted by jouke at 4:09 AM on September 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Museum für Antike Schifffahrt in Mainz has both the originals and some recreations of the ships found there in the 1980s - the DVC boat is based on some of these. It's interesting to see them life size and up close and really get a feel for the size of them.

(The museum is closed until sometime next year, though.)
posted by scorbet at 5:51 AM on September 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was thinking about Roman boats just the other day! I was recommending ORBIS to someone and saying you could probably use it for a decent approximation of travel times even up to the early modern era. My guess was that roads were on average worse and ships better, but I don't know how good Roman boats were so thank you for this pointer.
posted by tavella at 1:16 PM on September 11, 2023