Lembus

A lembus (from Greek λέμβος lembos)[1] was an ancient Illyrian galley, with a single bank of oars and no sails. It was small and light, with a low freeboard. It was a fast and maneuverable warship, capable of carrying 50 men in addition to the rowers.[2] It was the galley used by Illyrian pirates.[3] Illyrians used them at Medion under Agron, and at Elis, Messene, Phoenice, Issa, Epidamnus, Apollonia, Corcyra and Paxus under Teuta. Philip V of Macedon used lembi during the First Macedonian War.[4]

Notes
  1. λέμβος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  2. Wilkes, p. 157; Polybius, 2.3.
  3. Wilkes, p. 163.
  4. Walbank, p. 69, Polybius, 5.109.

References
  • Polybius, Histories, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (translator); London, New York. Macmillan (1889); Reprint Bloomington (1962).
  • Walbank, F. W., Philip V of Macedon Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN 9781107630604.
  • Wilkes, John, The Illyrians (Peoples of Europe), Blackwell Publishers, (December 1, 1995) ISBN 0-631-19807-5
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