A Brief History of Ships' Eyes

 (condensed from the Master's thesis of Troy Joseph Nowak, Texas A&M University, 2006, "Archaeological Evidence for Ship Eyes: An Analysis of Their Form and Function 

(https://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Nowak-MA2006.pdf#:~:text=bows%20of%20ancient%20Greek%20ships%20between%20the%205th,guided%20the%20ship%20and%20helped%20to%20avoid%20hazards.)

Between the Bronze Age and the 3rd century BCE, all types of watercraft used in the Mediterranean from small boats to large galleys were commonly adorned with eyes on their bows.  In Greece, the earliest clear depiction of a ship with eyes is a Late Helladic clay ship model decorated with circular eyes discovered at Phylakopi, Melos. However, ship representations with eyes do not reappear in the archaeological record again until the Geometric Period.  Excavations in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens have yielded an impressive collection of Late Geometric I [c. 760 to 735 BCE] ceramics decorated with ships. Eyes adorn the bows of these galleys and typically take the form of 8- or 16-point stars enclosed in circles, although other related types are known. Slightly later examples dating to Late Geometric II [c. 735-710 BCE] show a greater variety of abstract forms used to indicate the presence of eyes. 

During the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, many representations of Greek galleys fail to include eyes on the upperworks of their bows. Instead, the eyes on these vessels are typically placed in association with the forefoot, which now takes on a stylized zoomorphic form that often resembles the head of a boar. The development of naval tactics involving the ramming and the subsequent disabling of enemy ships may coincide with introduction of eyes set in relation to the forefeet of warship bows.

Representations of ancient Greek warships dated to the 6th century BCE show that they were commonly decorated with two pairs of eyes. One was set low on the bow to impart a zoomorphic form to the embolos that has been identified for the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE as the head of a boar. Another was set on the upperworks of the bow as those during the Late Geometric Period but the eyes become more realistically depicted with a slight almond shape and a clearly delineated pupil. 

By the 4th and 3rd century BCE, more elongated, dolphin-shaped eyes were introduced and eyes on Punic vessels move to between the waterline and upper wale.

The form of the ship eye remains elongated until the 2nd century BCE when it appears to take on a more Roman appearance, both elongated, and naturalistic as well as, round, almond-shaped, and wadjet-eye-shaped. Moreover, ship eyes were no longer exclusively set in the upperworks of galleys.

I couldn't help but wonder if the wadjet-shaped eye was adopted because of trading relations with Egypt.  The wadjet was closely associated in ancient Egyptian religion with the Eye of Ra, a powerful protective deity. Like the wadjet, the eyes of a ship were thought to be apotropaic in nature and scholars have likened their use to decorations depicting the gorgoneion on armor, weapons and architecture.  Although the identification of which specific deity possessing the eyes may vary based on context, the eye motif seems to primarily, and almost universally, denote the presence of a protective supernatural consciousness that aids its user by keeping watch for invisible threats. Nowak examines human envy in literary sources as one of those primary invisible threats.

Archaic warship bows including those resembling a boar as illustrated by Troy Joseph Nowak

Bow of a 3rd century BCE warship with an elongated eye set on its upperworks and an ovoid eye near its embolos as illustrated by Troy Joseph Nowak.

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Serving in the Roman navy

 I've been catching up on my reading and thoroughly enjoyed the article "Roman Fleet Personnel" by Duncan Campbell in Volume XIV, Issue 2 of Ancient Warfare Magazine.

So today's featured "Antiquities Alive" artwork are the frescos of Roman galleys found in the porticus of the Temple of Isis at Pompeii.

Campbell points out that the Roman navy was crewed by fleet soldiers/marines termed "milites classiarii", sailors known as "nautae" and oarsmen called remiges.  However, on funerary monuments these men referred to themselves as just milites.  They were commanded by a centurion just as they would have been if a regular member of the legions.  The main distinction found on recovered gravestones is the mention of the name of the ship on which they served, although some men just recognized the name of their centurionate, such as "member of the centuria of Antonius Priscus."

Two uniquely naval officers were the trierarchus, captain of the a ship, and navarchus, a title thought to be that of a naval administrative post as it was usually not mentioned in the context of a ship but of overall naval operations.  Only a dozen or so navarchs have been identified and the tombstone of Publius Petronius Afrodisis informs us that he progressed from the position of trierarch to navarch, and ultimately to the head of the Praetorian Fleet of Ravenna. It is Galen who tells us that the position of trierarch originally meant the captain of a trireme but it eventually came to be used for any vessel's captain. 

Although sailors thought of themselves as milites (soldiers) they were usually non-citizens who were granted Latin status upon enlistment but not full Roman citizenship.  Therefore  their promotional prospects were thereby limited.  Campbell relates the example of Claudius Terentianus who joined the Roman navy at Alexandria but longed for service in an auxiliary cohort where he might at least rise in rank to a centurion.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors Miguel Hermoso Cuesta and ArchaiOptix

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First Punic War Rostrum Found Off The Coast of Sicily

"Italian researchers say a rostrum, used by ancient Romans to ram enemy ships, was found off the coast of Sicily.

The rare bronze appendage may have been used in the final naval battle of the First Punic War, ANSA reported Tuesday. The rostrum was recovered about 230 feet below the surface by divers aided by remotely operated vehicles.

Sicily's maritime affairs department department head, Sebastiano Tusa, said the Egadi rostrum confirms his theory that a battle took place northeast of the island of Levanzo between fleets from Rome and Carthage during the Battle of the Egadi in 241 B.C., the Italian news agency said."

It was the ancient custom for Roman senators and victorious generals to give speeches from the captured prows, or bows of enemy ships. The ships would then be drawn up on the beach and destroyed except for the prow.

"When you won a naval victory, you cut off the enemy rostra, brought them home, and mounted them on new ships of your own. The bronze prow was the most costly part of the ship, so bringing home the other guy's rostra meant that you could expand your fleet. After really great victories, you could do some serious bragging by mounting some of the rostra for public display rather than reusing them -- "We beat them so bad we have rostra to spare!" So Duilius mounted six "spare" captured rostra on the face of the forum tribunal after his fleet demolished the Latin fleet at Antium in 338 BC. In 260 BC, C. Duilius Nepos added several more after beating the Carthaginians at Mylae. Julius Caesar's plan to expand what by then was called "the Rostrum" was carried out by Augustus, but Augustus's rostra were decorative fakes -- real bronze showing wealth, but not from enemy ships. (The brick Rostrum seen today is a modern restoration.)

Augustus mounted real rostra from the naval battle of Actium on the front platform of the temple that he built to honor his assassinated uncle, "The Divine Julius (Caesar)", and that was particularly significant for two reasons. First, the Actium rostra were Roman, not foreign: they came from Marc Anthony's fleet. Second, Augustus was proclaiming the dominance and divinity of what was to become the Julio-Claudian dynasty both by putting a temple to his uncle Julius in the forum and by placing trophies on its front. He thus established a new Julio-Claudian Rostrum, and during that dynasty you had to be brave or silly to use the old one. The Flavian Emperors took over after Nero ended the Julio-Claudian line in disgrace, and use of the original Rostrum at the other end of the forum resumed." - Tom Wukitsch, Arlington Learning in Retirement Institute

Our English word rostrum, for the wooden stand used by a public speaker, comes from the Latin word for ship's prow.

For coin collectors in the crowd, the presence of a ship's prow on a coin reverse was used to signify victory, the importance of the grain supply (which was carried from Egypt in ships) or an emperor's care in ensuring an adequate grain supply."

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