You Live To Row This Ship …
… Row well, and live!
— Roman Tribune Quintus Arrius, to the galley slave Judah Ben-Hur.
A Brit researcher claims ancient Greek athletes were superior to modern athletes, based on his study of modern rowers’ metabolic output and what the ancient texts say about the feats of Greek trireme oarsmen. via John Hawks. Like Dienekes, I’m skeptical. Dienekes thinks the modern replica isn’t as good as an original trireme. Could be. I think the ancients weren’t big on accuracy and liked to exaggerate. But researcher Harry Rossiter refers to some very specific reports of ship movements: Greeks enroute to commit particular acts of mayhem in specific places across known distances within stated time periods.
So I think maybe Rossiter should try whipping his rowers or threatening them with execution and see if that gets their times up.
Wikipedia offers up this:
Trireme crews had to train hard and long, but were paid well. Contrary to the traditions of some other ancient navies, trireme oarsmen were not slaves, but poor free citizens recruited from the city-states. Those slaves drafted to the galleys in emergencies were freed before being put into service. (The resulting manumission of large numbers of slaves after the Persian invasions resulted in significant disruptions to Athenian society). Thus, the crew had a stake in the survival of their city and could be counted on to drill rigorously and to be reliable in combat.
OK. So offer the modern rowers freedom, and threaten to burn their cities and rape their women. See if that improves their performance.
Topics: anthronerdism, science
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:57 pm on Sunday, February 18, 2007
4 Responses to “You Live To Row This Ship …”
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February 18th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Leaving aside their lack of medical care, I always thought that ancient people had heavier bones and well-developed muscles and probably were physically stronger than the average person of today, simply because they were on their feet from daylight to dark, they never rode anywhere, and their diet had very little fat in it. Would I want to be them? Nope.
February 18th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Al Gore approves of their low carbon footprint.
February 19th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Nibbles– 2007.02.19
Just read ‘em. Maybe I’ll find time to do more with ‘em later. Never forget Do You Want The Terrorists To Win? You Live To Row This Ship …
February 19th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Bill’s Nibbles — 2007.02.19
Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the items within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the