Dionysius I of Syracuse
In the great wars of the 5th century BC, such as the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, the trireme was the heaviest type of warship used by the Mediterranean navies. The trireme (Greek: (), "three-oared") was propelled by three banks of oars, with one oarsman each. During the early 4th century BC, however, variants of the trireme design began to appear: invention of the quinquereme (Gk.: (), "five-oared") and the hexareme (Gk. "hexērēs", "six-oared") is credited by the historian Diodorus Siculus to the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, while the quadrireme (Gk. "tetrērēs", "four-oared") was credited by Aristotle to the Carthaginians.