Illyrian lembs engraved on
Labeatan coins of the 2nd century BC.
The lemb, lembus or lembos (
Ancient Greek: λέμβος, lembos;[1]Latin: lembus) was an ancient wide term covering a range of small ships, which were used for different purposes, both civilian and military.[2]
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.[3] It was the galley used by Illyrian pirates.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7]
Name
The term λέμβος, lembos has been recorded in Classical sources since the 4th century BC onwards.[8] The
Illyric-
Greek term λέμβος was later
Latinized as lembus.[9] The ultimate source of the term is obscure.[10] An Illyrian origin has been suggested.[11][10][12]
Usage
The lembi were small ships used originally for civilian purposes, and thereafter adapted to warfare usages, with at least three sub-types:[13]
small ship used in the
Aegean as towing boat, ship's boat, transportation boat, and platform for the catapults;
southern
Adriatic (Illyrian) lemb for
naval warfare, piracy (also attacking unarmed ships), trade, and swift transport of the troops: the southern Adriatic shipbuilders most likely adopted and developed an already existing small and fast Aegean type of ship;
upgraded Macedonian fighting lemb: a
Macedonian prototype of the Illyrian lemb was built at the behest of king
Philip V of Macedon, who ordered one hundred lembs to be built by Illyrian shipbuilders, in order to transport his toops in 216 BC. Philip's shipbuilders further developed in 214 BC this ship type by enlarging it into a bireme warship. Those warships were even fitted with rams.
Notes
^λέμβος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus