Unlike today, where shipbuilding is based on science and where ships are built using computers and sophisticated tools, shipbuilding in ancient Rome was more of an art relying on rules of thumb, inherited techniques and personal experience rather than an engineering science. The Romans were not traditionally sailors but mostly land-based people who learned to build ships from the people that they conquered, namely the Carthaginians (and their Phoenician predecessors), the Greeks and the Egyptians.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1028/roman-shipbuilding--navigation/.
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- Why do you think Roman shipbuilders could make such large ships without modern tools?
- Which do you think was harder for Romans, building ships or sailing them?
- How do you think Roman ships changed life in the empire?
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