Galley Warfare in Renaissance Intellectual Layering: Lepanto through Actium

Abstract

This article investigates the various intellectual layers within which galley warfare was considered around the time of the battle of Lepanto (1571). Beyond the obvious military genre and immediate geopolitical implications, the cultural and aesthetic constructions of the galley battle consciously evoked the epic grandeur of ancient battles like Actium and Salamis with relevant political effects; evocations of galley battles also provided wildly popular contemporary “entertainment” at the same time by way of the staged naumachia and various literary treatments. Arguing that we must go beyond poetics in search of what galley battles signified, the author takes us to political speeches and pamphlets in which ancient and recent galley battles were discussed in fascinating comparison by contemporary elites for whom various galley battles had specific and powerful political and cultural import.