A study of the warships evolved in the navies of the Mediterranean in the fourth and third centuries B.C. and of their use by Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Italians, Carthaginians and Romans in the fleet and naval battles in the second and first centuries, culminating in the Battle of Aktion; there is a section on the reconstructions by John Coates, and a discussion of crews, ships and tactics illuminated by the recent experiments with the reconstructed trireme Olympias.