After centuries of stasis, a single change in technology forever altered the behavior of ancient Mediterranean warships. Around 700 BCE, a simple pole of cast bronze, mounted at the waterline of the bow, turned what had been vessels of transport into weapons.1 Galleys, powered primarily by people pulling oars, began to charge into the sides of other galleys, attempting to breach their hulls and sink them. Ships fought rival ships at close range, and one-on-one, fulfilling the final ingredient of an arms race; faster ships prevailed. Speed required lots of oars, and more oars meant bigger ships. … Shipbuilders added oars, added rowers to each oar, and even added entire tiers of oars. In just a few centuries slender ships 10 feet wide and 90 feet long, powered by fifty men, jumped to double-hulled megaships 420 feet long, powered by four thousand men.3 The biggest ships were magnificent, but they'd gotten so big their weight offset the advantage of extra oars. They were too large to be fast, and too awkward to actually close in on and ram their rivals; the pendulum of ship evolution had swung too far and these ships were nautically worthless.

Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evoluti…, loc. 533