The Pentekonter is one of the oldest of Greek warships, and it stayed in continuous use because it was a fairly cheap, efficient design. Roughly 65 feet long, 3-5 feet wide, with a draught of 2-5 feet, the crew consisted of a captain, time-beater, helmsman, 50 rowers and 4-5 deck crew. They were probably in use by at least c.800 BC.

The Bireme is a development from the pentekoner, as once the maximum length had been reached, the only way to go was more rowers. The earliest biremes are Phoenician (c.700 BC).

A hemiolia or "one and a half" was so called because the rear 14 rowers acted as deck crew, enabling the ship to move under sail and one and a half bank of oars, thereby combining speed with staying power. The mast would come down and all oars manned on final approach. To catch them, Rhodes later devised the triemiola or "two and a half," which was a type of trireme that sported a quick-release mast. A variant was the Liburnian. Romans frequently used these as troop-transports as well as warships. Livy, Lucan and Appian all describe the liburnian as bireme; they were fully decked ships, with a sharply pointed prow, providing a more streamlined shape designed for greater speed. In terms of speed, the liburnian was probably considerably slower than a trireme, but on a par with a "five".

The Trireme came into existence c.500 BC. They were light and fast, but their size meant they needed to beach for water and supplies every night.
Length: 125-135 tf
Beam: (hull) 10-13 ft
(outrigger) 18 ft
Oar length: 14-15 ft
Draught: 3-4 ft
Crew: 200. Athenian warships had 170 rowers, 10 marines, and 4 archers; other states used up to 40 marines (Rome for example). There were also 15 deck hands, a captain and a flautist to keep time.

Quadremes and Quinqueremes had developed by the end of the Peloponesian war (c.415 BC) although they are often attributed to Dionysius of Syracuse in 399. They did not have five banks of oars; most probably they had 2 banks with 2 rowers on an oar, and one bank with one rower, hence "five" – but that is uncertain. "Fours" were considered a heavy ship to the Romans (who had 75 marines on each) but were considered "light" warships by Alexander's Successors. A "five" would be roughly 148 ft (45m) long, displace around 100 tonnes, be some 16 ft (5m) wide at water level, with its deck standing about 10 ft (3m) above the sea. A Roman quinquereme would have a crew of around 420, with about 20 deck crew, 70-120 marines, and the rest oarsmen (with captain, helmsman and time-keeper).

The corvus ("crow" in Latin) or harpago (probably the correct ancient name) was a Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage. Polybius describes this device as a bridge 4 ft (1.2m) wide and 36 ft (10.9m) long, with a small parapet on both sides. The engine was probably used in the prow of the ship, where a system of pulleys and a pole allowed the bridge to be raised and lowered. There was a heavy spike shaped as a bird's beak on the underside of the device. The spike was designed to pierce the enemy ship's deck when the boarding-bridge was lowered. This allowed a firm grip between the vessels and a route for the legionaries to cross to the other ship. The corvus made the ships very top-heavy and unseaworthy, and use did not survive the First Punic War.