Most academic disciplines are bedevilled with perennial cruces which seem destined to sprout up generation after generation to vex the ingenuity of their practitioners. The science of nautical archaeology is no exception. It is, however, doubtful whether any of its problems can vie in this respect with that of the ancient trireme. The arrangement of the oars, date of introduction, inventor and many other difficulties have been for decades—sometimes for centuries—the subjects of bitterest controversy. In these discussions the evidence of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the earliest surviving Greek historian, has played an all-important role, in particular an extremely interesting passage which occurs in his account of Ancient Egypt in Book ii.When he had desisted from the canal Necho turned his attention to military campaigns and triremes were constructed, some for the Mediterranean and others in the Red Sea for operations in the Erythrian Ocean. The slipways of the latter are still to be seen. And these ships he put to use when the need arose, (ii 159, 1–2)
