Ships [which] did not have the form of a trireme but were instead rather piratical: brazen-beaked and strong and armoured, and unreliable in respect of speed.
*liburnikai/: nh=es h)=san ou) kata\ to\n trihriko\n e)sxhmatisme/nai tu/pon, a)lla\ lh|strikw/terai xalke/mboloi/ te kai\ i)sxurai\ kai\ kata/fraktoi, kai\ to\ ta/xos a)/piston.
Named after the Liburnian people of the northern Adriatic coast (present-day Croatia). LSJ s.v. characterizes the ship-type as "a lift, swift vessel, felucca"; and cf. L. Casson,
Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Baltimore & London 1995) 141-2, "a fast, two banked galley adapted from from a craft developed among the Liburnians, piratically-minded dwellers of the Dalmatian coast and its offshore islands". Adopted by the Roman navy at least as early as the C3 BCE. See further in Casson, General Index s.v. It therefore looks as though this Suda entry, after starting plausibly enough, switches to a description of an altogether different type of ship.
See also
lambda 490 (under a commoner form of the headword).
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