Lembus

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An Illyrian lemb engraved on a 2nd-century BC Labeatan coin from Scodra.

A lemb or lembus (Ancient Greek: λέμβος, lembos;[1] Latin: lembus) 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.[citation needed] Philip V of Macedon used lembi during the First Macedonian War.[4]

The lemb was more common among the Illyrians of the southern Adriatic, while in the northern Adriatic the more common ship was the liburna which originated from the Liburnians.[5] The lemb appears in several Illyrian coins of the southern Adriatic communities, which were politically connected with the Illyrian kingdom, like the Labeatae, the Daorsi, and the cities of Scodra and Lissus.[6]

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.
  5. ^ Boršić, Džino & Radić Rossi 2021, p. ix.
  6. ^ Boršić, Džino & Radić Rossi 2021, p. 50.

References[]

  • Polybius, Histories, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (translator); London, New York. Macmillan (1889); Reprint Bloomington (1962).
  • Boršić, Luka; Džino, Danijel; Radić Rossi, Irena (2021). Liburnians and Illyrian Lembs: Iron Age Ships of the Eastern Adriatic. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9781789699166.
  • 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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