Quinqueremes are usually described as the typical warship in the naval battles of the Punic Wars. The Wikipedia article with that heading says 'During the Second Punic War Rome had 220 quinqueremes'.
The same article continues (section heading 'Polyremes') also says:
'The wars of the Diadochi, the successors to the empire of Alexander the Great, caused another arms race. This time the trend was to build bigger and bigger galleys. Macedon was building hexiremes (probably with two men on each of three oars) in 340 BC; by 315 BC Antigonus, the successor to Alexander the Great in Macedon, was building septiremes, which saw action at the Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (306 BC); his son Demetrius, involved in a naval war with Ptolemy of Egypt, built eights (octeres), nines, tens, twelves and finally sixteens.'
You notice that last phrase only says that he 'built' ships of those sizes. Demetrius had a history of not knowing when to stop when it came to building large constructions and the eights and above may never have seen action.
The usual account of Salamis says that the Antigonid fleet contained 'seven Phoenician heptereis (seven banks of oarsmen on each side), ten hexereis (sixes), twenty quinquerems or pentereis (fives) and one hundred and ten triremes (threes) and quadriremes or tetreres (fours).' They defeated a more numerous Ptolemaic fleet which had nothing larger than a quinquereme.
Oared warships were still used in the Mediterranean as late as the 16th century (Lepanto, 1517), by which time they had started to mount cannon. So there was a narrow period of history in our world when oared warships and galleons were contemporary.
Andrew
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