2015-11-28 Sat

By the 6th century BCE, when coins were widely used in the Mediterranean world, ships had evolved immensely on a technical level. Contrary to popular belief, rowers in the ancient times were free citizens, mostly trained athletes. Ships with rowers were popular on ancient coins. Greece, Rome, Phoenicia and Carthage are known to have issued coins depict ships. Cargo ships usually relied on sails and were not regarded as a symbol of power which is why they were rarely depicted on coins.