The ancient Roman trireme ships were little match for the Carthaginian quinquiremes of the time but they were soon improved upon.
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The Roman trireme ship was little match for the Carthaginian quinquiremes. Around 300BC the Roman Republic had about 20 Roman trireme ships, mostly supplied by their Italian allies. The Roman navy was far short of what would be needed to defeat the Carthaginian naval power in the Punic wars. Fortunately the Romans captured a Carthaginian quinquireme which had run aground. They used this ship as a model to learn and improve upon its construction.