title: Rent-seeking

text: In many market-driven economies, much of the competition for rents is legal, regardless of any harm it may do to an economy. However, various rent-seeking behaviors are illegal, such as the forming of cartels or the bribing of politicians.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Rent-seeking is distinguished in theory from profit-seeking, in which entities seek to extract value by engaging in mutually beneficial transactions. Profit-seeking in this sense is the creation of wealth, while rent-seeking is "profiteering" by using social institutions, such as the power of the state, to redistribute wealth among different groups without creating new wealth. In a practical context, income obtained through rent-seeking may contribute to profits in the standard, accounting sense of the word.


title: Rent-seeking

text: The Tullock paradox is the apparent paradox, described by economist Gordon Tullock, on the low costs of rent-seeking relative to the gains from rent-seeking.


title: Rent-seeking

text: The paradox is that rent-seekers wanting political favors can bribe politicians at a cost much lower than the value of the favor to the rent-seeker. For instance, a rent seeker who hopes to gain a billion dollars from a particular political policy may need to bribe politicians with merely ten million dollars, which is about 1% of the gain to the rent-seeker. Luigi Zingales frames it by asking, "Why is there so little money in politics?" because a naïve model of political bribery and/or campaign spending should result in beneficiaries of government subsidies being willing to spend an amount up to the value of the subsidies themselves, when in fact only a small fraction of that is spent.


title: Rent-seeking

text: The classic example of rent-seeking, according to Robert Shiller, is that of a property owner who installs a chain across a river that flows through his land and then hires a collector to charge passing boats a fee to lower the chain. There is nothing productive about the chain or the collector. The owner has made no improvements to the river and is not adding value in any way, directly or indirectly, except for himself. All he is doing is finding a way to make money from something that used to be free.


title: Rent-seeking

text: An example of rent-seeking in a modern economy is spending money on lobbying for government subsidies in order to be given wealth that has already been created, or to impose regulations on competitors, in order to increase market share. Another example of rent-seeking is the limiting of access to lucrative occupations, as by medieval guilds or modern state certifications and licensures. According to some libertarian perspectives, taxi licensing is a textbook example of rent-seeking. To the extent that the issuing of licenses constrains overall supply of taxi services (rather than ensuring competence or quality), forbidding competition from other vehicles for hire renders the (otherwise consensual) transaction of taxi service a forced transfer of part of the fee, from customers to taxi business proprietors.


title: Rent-seeking

text: The concept of rent-seeking would also apply to corruption of bureaucrats who solicit and extract "bribe" or "rent" for applying their legal but discretionary authority for awarding legitimate or illegitimate benefits to clients. For example, tax officials may take bribes for lessening the tax burden of the taxpayers.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Regulatory capture is a related term for the collusion between firms and the government agencies assigned to regulate them, which is seen as enabling extensive rent-seeking behavior, especially when the government agency must rely on the firms for knowledge about the market. Studies of rent-seeking focus on efforts to capture special monopoly privileges such as manipulating government regulation of free enterprise competition. The term "monopoly privilege rent-seeking" is an often-used label for this particular type of rent-seeking. Often-cited examples include a lobby that seeks economic regulations such as tariff protection, quotas, subsidies, or extension of copyright law. Anne Krueger concludes that "empirical evidence suggests that the value of rents associated with import licenses can be relatively large, and it has been shown that the welfare cost of quantitative restrictions equals that of their tariff equivalents plus the value of the rents".


title: Rent-seeking

text: Rent-seeking through government enterprise takes the form of seeking subsidies and avoiding tariffs. This seems like the actions of a firm looking for investment in productivity but in doing so creates an exclusionary effect for more productive firms.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Lotta Moberg presents an argument that export processing zones (EPZ) allow governments to choose exporting industries which receive tariffs allowing for rent seeking to take place. An example of this occurred in Latin America in the 1960s with Joaquín Balaguer's response to pressure from the United States to open the Dominican Republic's export market. At the time, the United States was a massive trading partner for sugar while providing foreign aid and military support which allowed Balaguer's regime to take hold. Joaquín Balaguer used EPZ to allow for some markets to remain tariffed while appeasing the markets facing political pressures. This created a sub-optimal environment for exporters as they were able to invest in rent seeking activities (lobbying) to gain access to EPZ to gain tax and tariff exemptions.


title: Rent-seeking

text: In some cases, rent-seeking can provide a net positive for an economy. Shannon K. Mitchell's article "The Welfare Effects of Rent-Saving and Rent-Seeking" provides such an example through a model of rent-seeking when firms need to expand to obtain their exporting rents.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Economists such as Lord Adair Turner, the former chair of the British Financial Services Authority, have argued that innovation in the financial industry is often a form of rent-seeking.


title: Rent-seeking

text: The phenomenon of rent-seeking in connection with monopolies was first formally identified in 1967 by Gordon Tullock.


title: Rent-seeking

text: A 2013 study by the World Bank showed that the incentives for policy-makers to engage in rent-provision is conditional on the institutional incentives they face, with elected officials in stable high-income democracies the least likely to indulge in such activities vis-à-vis entrenched bureaucrats and/or their counterparts in young and quasi-democracies.


title: Rent-seeking

text: In the 1980s, critiques of rent-seeking theory began to emerge, questioning the ambiguity of the concept of "wasted resources" and the reliability of the assumptions being made from it. Samuels argues that productivity is defined by rent-seeking theorists as a strictly physical property but ignores the rights that surround and define the product. He further asserts that rent-seeking theorists ignore a fundamental principle of being economic actors: that we live in markets of scarce resources and it's how we utilise these resources which drives supply and demand, and the notion of "wasted resources" rejects our preferences to allocate those resources.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Writing in "The Review of Austrian Economics", Ernest C. Pasour says that there may be difficulties distinguishing between beneficial profit-seeking and detrimental rent-seeking.


title: Rent-seeking

text: From a theoretical standpoint, the moral hazard of rent-seeking can be considerable. If "buying" a favorable regulatory environment seems cheaper than building more efficient production, a firm may choose the former option, reaping incomes entirely unrelated to any contribution to total wealth or well-being. This results in a sub-optimal allocation of resourcesmoney spent on lobbyists and counter-lobbyists rather than on research and development, on improved business practices, on employee training, or on additional capital goodswhich slows economic growth. Claims that a firm is rent-seeking therefore often accompany allegations of government corruption, or the undue influence of special interests.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Rent-seeking can prove costly to economic growth; high rent-seeking activity makes more rent-seeking attractive because of the natural and growing returns that one sees as a result of rent-seeking. Thus organizations value rent-seeking over productivity. In this case, there are very high levels of rent-seeking with very low levels of output. Rent-seeking may grow at the cost of economic growth because rent-seeking by the state can easily hurt innovation. Ultimately, public rent-seeking hurts the economy the most because innovation drives economic growth.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Government agents may initiate rent-seeking, as by soliciting bribes or other favors from the individuals or firms that stand to gain from having special economic privileges, which opens up the possibility of exploitation of the consumer. It has been shown that rent-seeking by bureaucracy can push up the cost of production of public goods. It has also been shown that rent-seeking by tax officials may cause loss in revenue to the public exchequer.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Mançur Olson traced the historic consequences of rent seeking in "The Rise and Decline of Nations". As a country becomes increasingly dominated by organized interest groups, it loses economic vitality and falls into decline. Olson argued that countries that have a collapse of the political regime and the interest groups that have coalesced around it can radically improve productivity and increase national income because they start with a clean slate in the aftermath of the collapse. An example of this is Japan after World War Two. But new coalitions form over time, once again shackling society in order to redistribute wealth and income to themselves. However, social and technological changes have allowed new enterprises and groups to emerge.


title: Rent-seeking

text: A study by Laband and John Sophocleus in 1988 estimated that rent-seeking had decreased total income in the US by 45 percent. Both Dougan and Tullock affirm the difficulty of finding the cost of rent-seeking. Rent-seekers of government-provided benefits will in turn spend up to that amount of benefit in order to gain those benefits, in the absence of, for example, the collective-action constraints highlighted by Olson. Similarly, taxpayers lobby for loopholes and will spend the value of those loopholes, again, to obtain those loopholes (again absent collective-action constraints). The total of wastes from rent-seeking is then the total amount from the government-provided benefits and instances of tax avoidance (valuing benefits and avoided taxes at zero). Dougan says that the "total rent-seeking costs equal the sum of aggregate current income plus the net deficit of the public sector".


title: Rent-seeking

text: Mark Gradstein writes about rent-seeking in relation to public goods provision, and says that public goods are determined by rent seeking or lobbying activities. But the question is whether private provision with free-riding incentives or public provision with rent-seeking incentives is more inefficient in its allocation.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Political rent-seeking can also affect immigration. Welfare states incentivise unproductive migration and can create continuation of past behaviour of not accumulating personal wealth and being dependent on government transfers. Alternatively, productive migrants are incentivised to leave rent-seeking societies, possibly resulting in further economic decline. Low-income countries are often rent-seeking societies, that productive people will likely seek to leave.


title: Rent-seeking

text: The Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has argued that rent-seeking contributes significantly to income inequality in the United States through lobbying for government policies that let the wealthy and powerful get income, not as a reward for creating wealth, but by grabbing a larger share of the wealth that would otherwise have been produced without their effort. Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Stefanie Stantcheva have analyzed international economies and their changes in tax rates to conclude that much of income inequality is a result of rent-seeking among wealthy tax payers.


title: Rent-seeking

text: Laband and John Sophocleus suggest that the lack of empirical evidence on rent-seeking is due to the broad scope of rent-seeking and rent avoidance activities. Additionally, they suggest that many economic performance measures, such as Gross Domestic Product, include goods and services that are part of the rent-seeking process.


title: Anna Hutchison

text: Anna Hutchison (born 8 February 1986) is a New Zealand actress and producer. Her roles include Delphi Greenlaw on "Shortland Street" (2002–04); Lily Chilman, the Yellow Cheetah Ranger on "Power Rangers Jungle Fury" (2008); Allison Dine on "" (2009); Amy Smart on "Go Girls" (2009–12); Jules Louden in "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012); Laeta on "" (2013); Sasha on "Anger Management" (2013–14) and Kim in "The Right Girl" (2015).


title: Anna Hutchison

text: Hutchison's career began on the New Zealand soap opera "Shortland Street" and continued in the American series "Power Rangers Jungle Fury". She also played Allison Dine, the girlfriend of crime figure Terry Clark in the Australian television series "" also known as "Underbelly: The Mr Asia Story", and Amy Smart in the New Zealand television comedy-drama series "Go Girls". In 2012, she starred in the Joss Whedon-Drew Goddard meta-fictional slasher film "The Cabin in the Woods".


title: Anna Hutchison

text: On 13 April 2012, it was announced that Hutchison would be joining the cast of "Spartacus" for the in 2013, in a main role as Laeta, a Roman taken prisoner by Spartacus.


title: Oh! Baby

text: Oh! Baby is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language fantasy comedy film directed by B. V. Nandini Reddy. The film stars Samantha Akkineni and Lakshmi. A remake of the 2014 South Korean film "Miss Granny", the plot follows a woman in her 70s (Lakshmi) who magically finds herself in the body of her 24-year-old self (Samantha) after having her picture taken at a mysterious photo studio. Naga Shaurya, Rajendra Prasad, Rao Ramesh, and Sajja Teja play supporting roles. The music was composed by Mickey J. Meyer.


title: Oh! Baby

text: Principal photography of the film began in December 2018. The film released theatrically on 5 July 2019 and received positive reviews, with praise for Samantha's performance. A remake is in development by Sajid Nadiadwala titled "Jabudani".


title: Oh! Baby

text: Lecturer Shekhar / Nani explains the behavior of old people and talks about his mother Baby. She works in a canteen of her own in the same college which is co-owned by her childhood friend Pasupuleti Kanakaraj / Chanti. At a young age, she dreams to become a great singer, which does not come true. Right now, she aspires her grandson Rocky to fulfill her goal. However, her relationship with her daughter-in-law Madhavi does not run on good terms. Things get worse when Madhavi gets a heart attack and does not want to live with Baby. Even the doctors suggest the same.


title: Oh! Baby

text: Being cognizant of it, heartbroken, Baby quits the house and accuses God of her fate. On the way, Rocky calls her for his first music performance at an exhibition where God appears in the form of a saint, presents her with a statue of Lord Ganesha, and says it will change her fate. Nevertheless, she finds a photo studio and enters with the hope of getting a good photograph as she would like to print a beautiful photo of hers after her death in the newspaper. The same person appears as the photographer and promises to get back her beauty, after taking the picture. Astoundingly, she turns into a 24-year-old herself. Looking at it, she becomes bewildered when God appears, while praising Lord Shiva and tells her that this new life is given to fill her with joy and enlightenment. Thereafter, she accommodates herself in Chanti's house changing as Swathi, starts a new life, and also teams up with her grandson Rocky and becomes a part of the band. Meanwhile, Chanti realizes that Swathi herself is Baby and supports her at every step. Soon, Vikram, the head of the music company, likes Baby / Swathi's voice and gives her band an opportunity. Swathi supports Rocky throughout and encourages him to be better.


title: Oh! Baby

text: Vikram and Swathi begin spending a lot of time together, and she too starts taking an interest in him. After a lot of romantic comedy, Vikram proposes to Swathi when she is completely under dichotomy. At the same time, Chanti learns that if Baby loses her blood, she again turns into an old lady. At last, in the D-day finale of the competition, Rocky, unfortunately, meets with an accident, yet Baby participates and acquires the triumph. Immediately, Baby / Swathi rushes to the hospital leaving a letter for Vikram, convincing her to remember her acquaintance as a sweet memory and always be smiling. By this time Nani also realizes that she is his mother. But after reaching the hospital she finds Rocky requires AB-type blood which Baby donates, even after the refusal of Chanti and Nani, by stating that she is first and foremost Nani's mother and would always be there for him and his children and again transforms into an old lady.


title: Oh! Baby

text: After she returns, her family also realizes her value and she in turn is also more friendly with them as they can be seen enjoying a performance by Rocky (after his recovery). In the end, God transforms Chanti into a young man, who comes to pick up Baby.


title: Oh! Baby

text: During November 2018, pre-production of an untitled film commenced with costume selection. Initially titled as ""O Baby"" with the tagline as ""Yentha Sakkagunnave"" with Samantha in the lead role, the full title was revealed to be as "O Baby! Yentha Sakkagunnave" in December 2018, being bankrolled by Sunitha Tati , People's Media Factory and Suresh Productions. The film's title is being inspired from one of her songs ""Yentha Sakkagunnave"", which describes the beauty of Samantha in the film, "Rangasthalam".


title: Oh! Baby

text: Apart from Samantha, Rao Ramesh, Snigdha, Naga Shourya, Lakshmi and Rajendra Prasad appear in supporting roles.


title: Oh! Baby

text: The first look of film presenting Samantha Akkineni was released on 21 May 2019. The teaser of the film released on 25 May. The official theatrical trailer of the film was released on 20 June by Suresh Productions.


title: Oh! Baby

text: The movie was planned to be released on 5 July 2019, along with its dubbed version in Tamil language; it was released in India at this time, and in Kuwait and the United States on July 4, a day earlier. Official streaming partner is Netflix.


title: Oh! Baby

text: "The Times of India" gave 3.5 out of 5 stars stating "Save for moments in the latter part of the film which are a tad bit melodramatic, Oh! Baby is an enjoyable ride. It's a film that has its heart in the right place and has a lot of great moments to take away from. Nandini Reddy has successfully adapted Korean classic Miss Granny, and has made it her own, and Tollywood is richer for it". "The Indian Express" gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "Samantha Akkineni thrives in the role that reflects the possibilities of youth, the burden of old age, and the society’s indifference to the desires and complaints of old people. Written by director BV Nandini Reddy and Lakshmi Bhupala, the film convincingly captures the circle of life". "The News Minute" gave 4 out of 5 stars stating "Adopting the body language of a 70-year-old is difficult, but Samantha gives it a reverent, comic touch in this Nandini Reddy directorial".


title: Oh! Baby

text: "Deccan Chronicle" gave 3.5 out of 5 stars stating "Oh! Baby is a fun film with an emotional touch that is neatly narrated by director Nandini Reddy. The film takes Samantha up a notch, and proves that she can carry a film by herself. They are supported by Rajendra Prasad and Lakshmi". "Firstpost" gave 4 out of 5 stars stating "Oh! Baby is a treasure box. Open it, dig into it, and cherish everything that it has to offer you. There’s a lot more to this film than just laughs. It’s like sunshine on a gloomy day. It’s a heart-warming film that you won't forget anytime soon". "India Today" gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "Oh! Baby, directed by Nandini Reddy, is everything nice and fine. It makes you understand the struggles your grandmother had to undergo and appreciate the life you have now. Watch it for Samantha and Rajendra Prasad's career-best performances".


title: Oh! Baby

text: Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of "The Hindu" wrote "Oh! Baby is a fun ode to the complexities that make up our elders. It’s an acknowledgement of their rough rides as much as it is about learning to count your blessings". "Sify" gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "Official remake of Korean drama Miss Granny, Samantha starrer Oh Baby is watchable for Samantha's energetic performance. Schmaltzy ending and flabby runtime almost kill the film but it finally works to an extent thanks to Samantha. This is for those who like candy-floss sentiment dramas".


title: Tony Tarantino

text: Tony Tarantino (born July 4, 1940) is an American actor and producer. He is the father of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.


title: Tony Tarantino

text: Tarantino was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Jean and Dominic James Tarantino, both of southern Italian ancestry. In a 2017 interview, Tony Tarantino spoke of an incident in 1960 when he was 20 years old and talent agent Henry Willson offered him acting opportunities and a lavish lifestyle in exchange for gay sex. Shocked, Tarantino says he punched Willson in the face, knocking Willson to the ground. After Willson got up he told Tarantino he'd never work in Hollywood or New York again as an actor. Tarantino stated he was thereafter quickly fired from his role on the TV western series "Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre". Tarantino changed his name to Tony Maro and booked several acting jobs with Paramount as an extra, but says he was thrown off the lot within two hours once his true identity was discovered.


title: Tony Tarantino

text: Tarantino is the father of film director Quentin Tarantino. During a 2010 interview, the younger Tarantino said: "Well, I never knew my father [...] That's the thing. I never knew him [...] He wanted to be an actor [...] Now he's an actor only because he has my last name. But he was never part of my life. I didn't know him. I've never met him."


title: Tony Tarantino

text: In October 2015, his son Quentin Tarantino received backlash from police unions after speaking at an anti-police brutality rally in New York, saying: "I have to call the murderers the murderers." Tarantino responded, saying he had relatives in the police and that what Quentin had said was "dead wrong".


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, also known in Japan as , is an anime spin-off and sequel series to the original "Yu-Gi-Oh!" anime. It aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 6, 2004 to March 26, 2008, and was succeeded by "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's". "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX" follows the exploits of Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki in the Japanese versions) and his companions as he attends Duel Academia (Duel Academy in the 4Kids version). It was later dubbed in English by 4Kids Entertainment and a manga spinoff was created by Naoyuki Kageyama. The series was followed by "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's" in 2008.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: Taking place ten years after the events of "Yu-Gi-Oh!", "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX" follows a new generation of duelists including a young boy named Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki) who attends Duel Academy, a school founded by Seto Kaiba, where aspiring duelists train in the field of Duel Monsters. The academy has an internal ranking system based on the "Egyptian God" cards from Battle City. Obelisk Blue is the highest dorm and is filled with only the best duelists or those who come from elite families. Ra Yellow is the second-highest dorm and is made up of duelists who score and perform well in school and have the potential to be the best. Slifer Red is the lowest dorm and consists of those who do not perform well and need much help to improve. Students are able to graduate to the next dorm if they show improvement. In the universe of "Yu-Gi-Oh!", this series focuses on the type of summoning called "Fusion Summon", which the protagonist and many characters perform.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: For the first year at Duel Academy, Jaden befriends many students such as Syrus Truesdale (Sho Marufuji), Jaden's roommate with low self esteem and Zane's brother, Alexis Rhodes (Asuka Tenjoin), one of the top female duelists and Jaden's love interest, Bastion Misawa (Daichi Misawa), an excellent duelist with an extremely high intellect, Chazz Princeton (Jun Manjoime), one of Jaden's rivals with an elitist personality, and Zane Truesdale (Ryo Marufuji), Jaden's other rival and the best duelist in the school. Together the main cast faced major threats including the Shadow Riders (Seven Stars), who intended to revive the Sacred Beasts, powerful cards that could destroy the world. This group was led by Kagemaru and consisted of Nightshroud (Alexis's brother Atticus possessed by darkness), Camula (a vampire), Tania (an Amazon Warrior), Don Zaloog (a duel spirit), Abydos (an Egyptian pharaoh), Titan (an illusionist) and Amnael (an alchemist who posed as the Slifer Red's dorm advisor, Professor Banner). After the Shadow Riders are defeated, Zane chooses Jaden to duel him in his graduation match which ends in the only draw of the series, after which he passes on the title of top duelist in the school to Jaden.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: In the second year, Jaden meets Aster Phoenix (Edo Phoenix), a duelling prodigy, and Tyranno Hassleberry, a duelist with a love for the army and dinosaurs. The main cast then face off against the Society of Light, a cult-like organization who infiltrated Duel Academy. They are led by Sartorius, Aster's manager, and intend to brainwash humanity with the powerful "Light of Destruction", a light in space that has the ability to corrupt. It is revealed that when one duels someone from the Society of Light, they also become brainwashed and become one of their members. This caused many of Jaden's friends, namely Chazz, Alexis, and Bastion, to become Jaden's enemy. Jaden learns that he has the ability to talk to Duel Spirits (similar to Yugi Mutou) due to his ability to use the "Gentle Darkness", a force created to balance out the Light of Destruction. He use this to beat Sartorious and free everyone from the influence.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: In the third year, Duel Academy is transported to another dimension, a desert plane with three suns and resident Duel Monster spirits, ruled by Yubel, a duel monster who was corrupted by the light. Upon returning home, Jaden and a select group of his partners dive back into the alternate dimension to recover their missing companions. After seeing his friends sacrificed, Jaden falls into despair and becomes possessed by the Supreme King, a ruthless and merciless ruler and the original wielder of the Gentle Darkness, which granted him immense power. During his time as the Supreme King, Jaden commits many crimes such as burning down villages, enslaving civilians, and sometimes even executing others. He is later freed of the influence by his friends in a duel, but is left with an immense amount of guilt. It is later revealed that Jaden in fact is the reincarnation of the Supreme King, and the Supreme King's power is a part of him. Jaden faces off against Yubel and learns that Yubel actually was the guardian of the Supreme King who was sworn to always be with him and protect him. Yubel was driven insane by the Light of Destruction and wishes to fuse all dimensions together so she could always be with Jaden. Seeing that Yubel was just trying to fulfil her promise, Jaden decides to use "Super Polymerization" and fuse himself with Yubel to help fulfil that promise and cleanse her of her corruption.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: In the fourth year, Jaden returns to Duel Academy for his final year. Since he fused himself with Yubel, he has gained her powers as well as her bi-chromatic eyes when he uses her powers. However, since he came back from the alternate dimension, he has become more solitary and distant from his friends as he does not wish to cause trouble for anyone anymore. He also lost his happy-go-lucky personality and his love for duelling; having endured such horrors over the past three years at Duel Academy, his belief that one duels for fun and enjoy yourself has been sapped out of him, and he only duels for survival. Despite this, Jaden is confronted by Nightshroud, the same spirit that possessed Atticus back in his first year, who tells Jaden that he will engulf this world in darkness by feeding off the negative emotions of humanity. Jaden originally fights off his minions until he comes face to face with Nightshroud himself. He duels him and successfully defeats him, freeing everyone of their darkness. Over the year, Jaden had slowly grown closer to his friends once again and began to reclaim his love for duelling, but on his final night, Jaden is going to leave the academy without saying goodbye. He is then stopped by an adult Yugi Mutou who transports him back in time for his 'graduation match' against Yugi Mutou from the past. During this duel, Jaden reflects on his time at Duel Academy and the great friendships he has made along the way. He expresses his gratitude towards Yugi and officially reclaims his old personality and, spurred on by the opportunity to battle one of Yugi's Egyptian God cards (in this case, Slifer the Sky Dragon), his love of duelling once again.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX" is produced by Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo, and the animation is handled by Studio Gallop. The series was directed by Hatsuki Tsuji and scripts were prepared by an alternating lineup of writers–Shin Yoshida, Atsushi Maekawa, Akemi Omode, Yasuyuki Suzuki–with music arrangements by Yutaka Minobe. Takuya Hiramitsu is in charge of sound direction, supervised by Yūji Mitsuya. Character and monster designs are overseen by Kenichi Hara, while Duel layout is overseen by Masahiro Hikokubo. The "GX" in the series' title is short for the term "Generation neXt". "GENEX" was conceived as the series' original title, as can be evidenced in early promotional artwork. It also refers to the GX tournament that takes place between episodes 84 and 104.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: The program is divided into episodes classified as "turns". The title sequence and closing credits are accompanied by lyrics varying over the course of the series, with the former immediately followed by an individual episode's number and title. Eyecatches begin and end commercial breaks halfway through each episode; in the first season, there were two eyecatches per episode, usually showcasing the opponents and their key monsters for a given episode while in later seasons, a single eyecatch appears with only the duelists. After the credits, a preview of the next episode, narrated most frequently by KENN and Masami Suzuki, is made, followed by a brief "Today's Strongest Card" segment.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: The 180-episode series aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 6, 2004 and March 26, 2008, and was followed by "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's".


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: It was subsequently licensed by 4Kids Entertainment and adapted into English, picked up by Cartoon Network


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: and 4KidsTV in North America, where it is also distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (edited version only) and Warner Bros. Television Animation. Like previous 4Kids adaptations, several changes were made from the original Japanese version, including the names and personalities of characters, the soundtrack, the sound effects, the appearance of visuals such as Life Point counters, and the appearance of cards. The story and some of the visuals are also edited to remove references to death, blood, violence and religion in order to make the series suitable for a younger audience. Also any written language text, either Japanese or English is erased or replaced with unreadable content. These edits are also used in various localizations of the show in countries outside of Asia where 4Kids had distribution rights. The last episode of the third season and the fourth season are banned outside of Japan, as they have been replaced by the North American airing of "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's" in September 2008. As a result, English dubbing for these episodes was never made available.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: Dubbed episodes were uploaded onto 4Kids' YouTube page until March 29, 2011, when Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo sued 4Kids and terminated the licensing agreement for the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. The series is currently licensed by 4K Media Inc. Hulu and Crunchyroll are currently streaming dubbed episodes, with the latter beginning to stream the subtitled Japanese version of the series in August 2015.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: A manga spin-off of the series supervised by Kazuki Takahashi and written and illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama began serialization in "V Jump" on December 17, 2005. The chapters have been collected and published in nine "tankōbon" volumes by Shueisha starting on November 2, 2006. The manga is licensed for English language release by Viz Media, which serialized the first 37 chapters in its "Shonen Jump" manga anthology. The remaining chapters were published straight to graphic novel, beginning with volume 5. The plot of the manga is completely different from the anime and is more of a continuation to the original "Yu-Gi-Oh!" series with Shadow Games and the Millennium Items playing a major role within the story. There are also new monsters and changes to some of the characters' personalities. Unlike the original "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga, all the names used in the English version of the manga are taken from the dubbed anime. A one-shot of the GX manga was released on June 21, 2014 in the August issue of "V Jump". The one-shot was written and illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama. An English version of this chapter was released on December 29, 2014 by "Weekly Shonen Jump".


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: Two games were released for Game Boy Advance; "Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship Tournament 2006", and "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Duel Academy."


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: Three games have been released for Nintendo DS; "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Spirit Caller", "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters World Championship 2007" and "Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008". A fourth title, "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Card Almanac", is not actually a game, but a catalog of cards up to 2007.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: The "Tag Force" series has appeared on the PlayStation Portable, which adds the ability to form tag team duels, with the first three games in the series being based on the "GX" series (subsequent games are based on "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's"). The titles are "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force", "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2" and "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 3". The first game was also ported to PlayStation 2 as "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Tag Force Evolution". So far, "Tag Force 3" has not been released in North America. It was however, released in Europe, and its follow up, "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 4", has been released in all regions including North America.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

text: In 2007, Eaglemoss productions signed a deal to release a magazine based upon the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX franchise named Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Ultimate Guide. This series of issues (Priced as 99p for Issue 1, £1.99 for Issues 2 to 60 and £4.99 for the Mini Monsters Special Issue) ran from 2007 to 2009 and totalled 61 issues. Each fortnight a collectable would be included in the form a medal (Academy character or duel monster), a Triang (2x shiny or 1x Holographic) or a miniature monster which would stand on its own platform. In Issue 2 a tin was provided to keep medals and Triangs in, along with a further 2 collectable file folders to hold the comics in later issues.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge (HZMB) is a bridge–tunnel system consisting of a series of three cable-stayed bridges, an undersea tunnel, and four artificial islands. It is both the longest sea crossing and the longest open-sea fixed link in the world. The HZMB spans the Lingding and Jiuzhou channels, connecting Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai—three major cities on the Pearl River Delta in China.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZM Bridge was designed to last for 120 years and cost ¥127 billion (US$18.8 billion) to build. The cost of constructing the Main Bridge was estimated at ¥51.1 billion (US$7.56 billion) funded by bank loans and shared among the governments of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Originally set to be opened to traffic in late 2016, the structure was completed on 6 February 2018 and journalists were subsequently taken for a ride over the bridge. On 24 October 2018, the HZMB was opened to the public after its inauguration a day earlier by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Hopewell Holdings founder and then-managing director Gordon Wu proposed the concept of a bridge-tunnel linking China, Hong Kong and Macau in the 1980s. Wu stated that he got the idea in 1983 from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel. In 1988, Wu pitched the concept to Guangdong and Beijing officials. He envisaged a link farther north than the current design, beginning at Black Point near Tuen Mun, Hong Kong and crossing the Pearl River estuary via Neilingding Island and Qi'ao Island. His proposed bridge would have ended at the Chinese village of Tangjia, and a new road would have continued south through Zhuhai before terminating at Macau. Discussions stalled after the Tiananmen Square protests in mid-1989 "unnerved" Wu and other foreign investors, and caused Hopewell's Hong Kong share prices to plunge.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The route proposed by Wu was promoted by the Zhuhai government under the name Lingdingyang Bridge. In the mid-1990s, Zhuhai built a bridge between the Zhuhai mainland and Qi'ao Island that was intended as the first phase of this route, though the full scheme had not been approved by either the Chinese or Hong Kong governments at the time. China's central government showed support for this project on 30 December 1997. The new Hong Kong government was reluctant, stating that it was still awaiting cross-border traffic study results, and Hong Kong media questioned the environmental impact of the project with regard to air pollution, traffic and marine life.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: In December 2001, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong passed a motion urging the Administration to develop the logistics industry including the construction of a bridge connecting Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao. In September 2002, the China/Hong Kong Conference on Co-ordination of Major Infrastructure Projects agreed to a joint study on a transport link between Hong Kong and Pearl River West.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: To coordinate the project, the Advance Work Coordination Group of HZMB was set up in 2003. Officials from three sides solved issues such as landing points and alignments of the bridge, operation of the Border Crossing Facilities, and project financing.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: In August 2008, China's Central Government, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau agreed to finance 42 percent of the total costs. The remaining 58% consisted of loans (approximately ¥22 billion or US$3.23 billion) from the Bank of China.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: In March 2009, it was further reported that China's Central Government, Hong Kong and Macau agreed to finance 22 percent of the total costs. The remaining 78 percent consisted of loans (approximately ¥57.3 billion or US$8.4 billion) from a consortium of banks led by Bank of China.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Construction of the HZMB project began on 15 December 2009 on the Chinese side, with the Politburo Standing member and Vice Premier of China Li Keqiang holding a commencement ceremony. Construction of the Hong Kong section of the project began in December 2011 after a delay caused by a legal challenge regarding the environmental impact of the bridge.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The last bridge tower was erected on 2 June 2016, the last straighted-element of the straight section of the undersea tunnel was installed on 12 July 2016, while the final tunnel joint was installed on 2 May 2017. Construction of the Main Bridge, consisting of a viaduct and an undersea tunnel, was completed on 6 July 2017, and the entire construction project was completed on 6 February 2018. During the construction 19 workers died.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The 55-km () HZMB consists of three main sections: the Main Bridge () in the middle of the Pearl River estuary, the Hong Kong Link Road () in the east and the Zhuhai Link Road () in the west of the estuary.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The Main Bridge, the largest part of the HZMB project, is a bridge-cum-tunnel system constructed by the mainland Chinese authorities. It connects an artificial island, housing the Boundary Crossing Facilities (BCF) for both mainland China and Macau in the west, to the Hong Kong Link Road in the east.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: This section includes and a 6.7-km () immersed tube undersea tunnel that runs between two artificial islands, the Blue Dolphin Island on the west and the White Dolphin Island on the east. The viaduct crosses the Pearl River estuary with three cable-stayed bridges spanning between 280 and 460 metres (920 and 1,510 ft), allowing shipping traffic to pass underneath.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Under Hong Kong jurisdiction, the Hong Kong Link Road was built to connect the Main Bridge to an artificial island housing the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF). This section includes a 9.4-km () viaduct, a 1-km () Scenic Hill Tunnel and a 1.6-km (1.0-mi) at-grade road along the east coast of the Chek Lap Kok.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The Zhuhai Link Road starts from an artificial island housing the Boundary Crossing Facilities for both mainland China and Macau, passes through the developed area of Gongbei via a tunnel towards Zhuhai, and connects to three major expressways, namely, the Jing-Zhu Expressway, Guang-Zhu West Expressway and Jiang-Zhu Expressway.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Although the HZMB connects two left-hand traffic (LHT) areas, namely Hong Kong and Macau, the crossing itself is right-hand traffic (RHT), the same as in Zhuhai and other regions of Mainland China (the bridge is technically in Zhuhai for most of its length). Thus, drivers from Hong Kong and Macau need to make use of crossing viaducts to switch to RHT upon entering the bridge, and back to LHT upon leaving the bridge when they are back to Hong Kong and Macau. Traffic between Zhuhai and the bridge requires no left-right conversion as they are both RHT.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZMBus shuttle bus service runs 24 hours a day with bus departures as frequent as every five minutes. The journey across the HZMB takes about 40 minutes.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZMB Hong Kong Port can be reached from Hong Kong by taxi or various buses including Cityflyer airport routes A11, A21, A22 and A29, Long Win Bus airport routes A31, A33X, A36 and A41, the B4 shuttle bus from Hong Kong International Airport, the B5 shuttle bus from Sunny Bay MTR station, or the B6 bus from Tung Chung. In addition, all overnight airport buses (NA-prefixed routes) terminate and start service from the Hong Kong Port.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZMB Zhuhai Port can be reached from Zhuhai by taxis or the L1 bus which uses historic tourist vehicles, or Line-12, 23, 25 or 3 buses.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZMB Macau Port can be reached from Macau by taxis or various buses including the 101X bus and the 102X bus from St Paul's and Taipa, or the HZMB Integrated Resort Connection bus from Taipa Ferry Terminal or the Exterior Ferry terminal, connecting with free casino shuttle buses.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: By the end of 2017 only 10,000 permits for private vehicles to drive across the HZMB from Hong Kong to Zhuhai had been issued. In addition, the number of vehicles permitted to enter Hong Kong and Macau from other regions is subject to a daily quota.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Since the Hong Kong government imposes significant fees, taxes and administrative paperwork on private vehicle ownership and usage to deal with road congestion, driving a car on the HZMB would incur the same restrictions as current cross-border traffic. These include applying for separate driving licences for both Hong Kong and mainland China, a Hong Kong Closed Road Permit for cross-boundary vehicles, and an Approval Notice from the Guangdong Public Security Bureau. Vehicle owners also need to ensure they have the appropriate insurance coverage for the regions they are travelling to.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: In addition, to help compact Macau tackle its road congestion problems, drivers arriving from other regions are strongly encouraged to use a park and ride scheme, leaving their vehicles at a car park on the edge of Macau. A small quota of 300 vehicles are allowed to enter Macau directly.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZMB links three major cities—Hong Kong, Zhuhai, and Macau—which are geographically close but separated by water. With the bridge in place, travelling time between Zhuhai and Hong Kong was cut down from about 4 hours to 30 minutes on the road.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The HZMB project is part of a Beijing-driven strategy to create an economic hub and promote the economic development of the whole area of the Pearl River Delta, which is also known as Greater Bay Area. Hoping to leverage the bridge and create an economic zone linking the three cities, Zhuhai's Hengqin area was designated as a free trade zone in 2015.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Some residents have complained that the bridge had been a waste of taxpayers’ money due to the restrictive criteria to be met and administrative paperwork needed in order to use the bridge with their own vehicle.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The artificial island housing the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF) was reported drifting due to an unconventional method, hitherto unused in Hong Kong, for land reclamation using a row of circular steel cells pile-driven into the mud and filled with inert material to form a seawall.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The drifting of parts of the reclaimed island allegedly caused a delay in the HZMB project. The Highways Department denied various reports of movement up to but admitted that parts of the reclaimed land had moved "up to six or seven metres", claiming that some movement was expected and safety had not been jeopardised.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Mainland contractors also reportedly had difficulty constructing immersed tubes for their section of the project, with the director of the Guangdong National Development and Reform Commission stating that 2020 would be a difficult target to meet.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: By 2017, the Main Bridge of the HZMB project had experienced a cost overrun of about ¥10 billion, blamed on increased labour and material costs, as well as changes to the design and construction schemes.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: The number of deaths and injuries during the construction project came under scrutiny in Hong Kong. In addition to 9 fatalities on the mainland side, more than ten deaths were reported on the Hong Kong side of the construction project, plus between 234 and 600 injuries, depending on the source. In April 2017, the Construction Site Workers General Union, the Labour Party and the Confederation of Trade Unions demonstrated at the Central Government Complex, demanding the government take action.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Lawmaker Fernando Cheung also expressed concern over the unknown death toll on the Chinese side of the project, stating: "the project is known as the 'bridge of blood and tears' and we are only talking about the Hong Kong side. We don't even know what is happening in China. I suppose the situation could be 10 times worse than that in Hong Kong." He said that the Hong Kong Government had a responsibility to consider worker safety on the Chinese side.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: In 2017, Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) arrested 21 employees (2 senior executives, 14 laboratory technicians, and 5 laboratory assistants) of Jacobs China Limited, a contractor of the Civil Engineering and Development Department for falsifying concrete test results, thus potentially risking the safety of the bridge for public use. In December 2017, a lab technician pleaded guilty and was sentenced to imprisonment for eight months, while the others await sentencing. Hong Kong's Highways Department conducted tests again after the falsified results were exposed and found all test results met safety standards.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: In April 2018, the public and media raised questions over the integrity of the seawalls protecting the artificial islands at both ends of the undersea tunnel. In footage taken by drone users and mariners, the dolosse installed at the edges of the artificial islands appear to have dislodged. Some civil engineers suggested that there was an error in design. In dismissing the safety concerns, the HZMB Authority said the dolosse were designed to be submerged and the design was working as intended. Director of Highways Department Daniel Chung denied on 8 April 2018 that the breakwater components had been washed away by waves.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Subsequent aerial footage posted online showed a section of the dolosse breakwater completely underwater. Civil engineer So Yiu-kwan told Hong Kong media on 12 April 2018 that the water level, at the time the photos were taken, was about 1.74 mPD (metres above Principal Datum), but the maximum water level could reach 2.7 mPD. He said the dolosse would offer no wave protection if entirely submerged, and further alleged that they had been installed backwards.


title: Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge

text: Conservationists at WWF Hong Kong blamed the construction of the HZMB for the falling number of white dolphins in the waters near the bridge. The dolphins found near waters of Lantau were worst hit with numbers dropping by 60 percent between April 2015 and March 2016.


title: Men's 100 metres world record progression

text: The first record in the 100 metres for men (athletics) was recognised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1912.


text: "Wind" in these tables refers to wind assistance, the velocity of the wind "parallel" to the runner - positive values are from the starting line towards the finish line, negative are from the finish line towards the starting line, 0 is no wind in either direction, and all values are measured in metres per second. Any wind "perpendicular" to the runners (from left to right, right to left, or up to down or down to up, although the conditions of the track generally preclude those wind directions) is "ignored" and not listed.


text: "Auto" refers to automatic timing, and for the purposes of these lists, indicates auto times which were either also taken for hand-timed records, or were rounded to the tenth or hundredth of a second (depending on the rounding rules then in effect) for the official record time.


text: The first manual time of 9.9 seconds was recorded for Bob Hayes in the final of the 100 metres at the 1964 Olympics. Hayes' official time of 10.0 seconds was determined by rounding down the electronic time of 10.06 to the nearest tenth of a second, giving the appearance of a manual time. This method was unique to the Olympics of 1964 and 1968, and the officials at the track recorded Hayes' time as 9.9 seconds.


text: Since 1975, the IAAF has accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting on January 1, 1977, the IAAF has required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.


text: Jim Hines' October 1968 Olympic gold medal run was the fastest recorded fully electronic 100 metre race up to that date, at 9.95 seconds. "Track and Field News" has compiled an unofficial list of automatically timed records starting with the 1964 Olympics and Bob Hayes' gold medal performance there. Those marks are included in the progression.


text: The IAAF considers marks set at high altitude as acceptable for record consideration. However, high altitude can significantly assist sprint performances. One estimate suggests times in the 200 m sprint can be assisted by between 0.09 s and 0.14 s with the maximum allowable tailing wind of (2.0 m/s), and gain 0.3 s at altitudes over 2000 m. For this reason, unofficial low-altitude record lists have been compiled.


text: After the IAAF started to recognise only electronic times in 1977, the then-current record and subsequent record were both set at altitude. It was not until 1987 that the world record was equalled or surpassed by a low-altitude performance. The following progression of low-altitude records therefore starts with Hines's low-altitude "record" when the IAAF started to recognise only electronic timing in 1977, and continues to Lewis's low-altitude performance that equalled the high-altitude world record in 1987. (Ben Johnson's 9.95 run in 1986 and 9.83 run in 1987 are omitted.)


title: Trireme

text: A trireme( ; derived from Latin: "trirēmis" "with three banks of oars"; cf. Greek "triērēs", literally "three-rower") was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.


title: Trireme

text: The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, manned with one man per oar. The early trireme was a development of the penteconter, an ancient warship with a single row of 25 oars on each side (i.e., a single-banked boat), and of the bireme (, "diērēs"), a warship with two banks of oars, of Phoenician origin. The word dieres does not appear until the Roman period. According to Morrison and Williams, "It must be assumed the term pentekontor covered the two-level type". As a ship, it was fast and agile and was the dominant warship in the Mediterranean from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC, when it was largely superseded by the larger quadriremes and quinqueremes. Triremes played a vital role in the Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian maritime empire and its downfall during the Peloponnesian War.


title: Trireme

text: Medieval and early modern galleys with three files of oarsmen per side are sometimes referred to as triremes.


title: Trireme

text: Depictions of two-banked ships (biremes), with or without the "parexeiresia" (the outriggers, see below), are common in 8th century BC and later vases and pottery fragments, and it is at the end of that century that the first references to three-banked ships are found. Fragments from an 8th-century relief at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh depicting the fleets of Tyre and Sidon show ships with rams, and fitted with oars pivoted at two levels. They have been interpreted as two-decked warships, and also as triremes.


title: Trireme

text: Modern scholarship is divided on the provenance of the trireme, Greece or Phoenicia, and the exact time it developed into the foremost ancient fighting ship. Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, drawing on earlier works, explicitly attributes the invention of the trireme ("trikrotos naus", "three-banked ship") to the Sidonians. According to Thucydides, the trireme was introduced to Greece by the Corinthians in the late 8th century BC, and the Corinthian Ameinocles built four such ships for the Samians. This was interpreted by later writers, Pliny and Diodorus, to mean that triremes were "invented" in Corinth, the possibility remains that the earliest three-banked warships originated in Phoenicia.


title: Trireme

text: Herodotus mentions that the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II (610–595 BC) built triremes on the Nile, for service in the Mediterranean, and in the Red Sea, but this reference is disputed by modern historians, and attributed to a confusion, since "triērēs" was by the 5th century used in the generic sense of "warship", regardless its type. The first definite reference to the use of triremes in naval combat dates to ca. 525 BC, when, according to Herodotus, the tyrant Polycrates of Samos was able to contribute 40 triremes to a Persian invasion of Egypt (Battle of Pelusium). Thucydides meanwhile clearly states that in the time of the Persian Wars, the majority of the Greek navies consisted of (probably two-tiered) penteconters and "ploia makrá" ("long ships").


title: Trireme

text: In any case, by the early 5th century, the trireme was becoming the dominant warship type of the eastern Mediterranean, with minor differences between the "Greek" and "Phoenician" types, as literary references and depictions of the ships on coins make clear. The first large-scale naval battle where triremes participated was the Battle of Lade during the Ionian Revolt, where the combined fleets of the Greek Ionian cities were defeated by the Persian fleet, composed of squadrons from their Phoenician, Carian, and Egyptian subjects.


title: Trireme

text: Athens was at that time embroiled in a conflict with the neighbouring island of Aegina, which possessed a formidable navy. In order to counter this, and possibly with an eye already at the mounting Persian preparations, in 483/2 BC the Athenian statesman Themistocles used his political skills and influence to persuade the Athenian assembly to start the construction of 200 triremes, using the income of the newly discovered silver mines at Laurion. The first clash with the Persian navy was at the Battle of Artemisium, where both sides suffered great casualties. However, the decisive naval clash occurred at Salamis, where Xerxes' invasion fleet was decisively defeated.


title: Trireme

text: After Salamis and another Greek victory over the Persian fleet at Mycale, the Ionian cities were freed, and the Delian League was formed under the aegis of Athens. Gradually, the predominance of Athens turned the League effectively into an Athenian Empire. The source and foundation of Athens' power was her strong fleet, composed of over 200 triremes. It not only secured control of the Aegean Sea and the loyalty of her allies, but also safeguarded the trade routes and the grain shipments from the Black Sea, which fed the city's burgeoning population. In addition, as it provided permanent employment for the city's poorer citizens, the fleet played an important role in maintaining and promoting the radical Athenian form of democracy. Athenian maritime power is the first example of thalassocracy in world history. Aside from Athens, other major naval powers of the era included Syracuse, Corfu and Corinth.


title: Trireme

text: In the subsequent Peloponnesian War, naval battles fought by triremes were crucial in the power balance between Athens and Sparta. Despite numerous land engagements, Athens was finally defeated through the destruction of her fleet during the Sicilian Expedition, and finally, at the Battle of Aegospotami, at the hands of Sparta and her allies.


title: Trireme

text: Based on all archeological evidence, the design of the trireme most likely pushed the technological limits of the ancient world. After gathering the proper timbers and materials it was time to consider the fundamentals of the trireme design. These fundamentals included accommodations, propulsion, weight and waterline, centre of gravity and stability, strength, and feasibility. All of these variables are dependent on one another; however a certain area may be more important than another depending on the purpose of the ship.


title: Trireme

text: The arrangement and number of oarsmen is the first deciding factor in the size of the ship. For a ship to travel at high speeds would require a high oar-gearing, which is the ratio between the outboard length of an oar and the inboard length; it is this arrangement of the oars which is unique and highly effective for the trireme. The ports would house the oarsmen with a minimal waste of space. There would be three files of oarsmen on each side tightly but workably packed by placing each man outboard of, and in height overlapping, the one below, provided that thalamian tholes were set inboard and their ports enlarged to allow oar movement.


title: Trireme

text: Thalamian, zygian, and thranite are the English terms for "thalamios" (θαλάμιος), "zygios" (ζύγιος), and "thranites" (θρανίτης), the Greek words for the oarsmen in, respectively the lowest, middle, and uppermost files of the triereis.


title: Trireme

text: Tholes were pins that acted as fulcrums to the oars that allowed them to move. The center of gravity of the ship is low because of the overlapping formation of the files that allow the ports to remain closer to the ships walls. A lower center of gravity would provide adequate stability.


title: Trireme

text: The trireme was constructed to maximize all traits of the ship to the point where if any changes were made the design would be compromised. Speed was maximized to the point where any less weight would have resulted in considerable losses to the ship's integrity. The center of gravity was placed at the lowest possible position where the Thalamian tholes were just above the waterline which retained the ship's resistance to waves and the possible rollover. If the center of gravity were placed any higher, the additional beams needed to restore stability would have resulted in the exclusion of the Thalamian tholes due to the reduced hull space. The purpose of the area just below the center of gravity and the waterline known as the "hypozomata" (ὑποζώματα) was to allow bending of the hull when faced with up to 90 kN of force. The calculations of forces that could have been absorbed by the ship are arguable because there is not enough evidence to confirm the exact process of jointing used in ancient times. In a modern reconstruction of the ship, a polysulphide sealant was used to compare to the caulking that evidence suggests was used; however this is also contentious because there is simply not enough evidence to authentically reproduce the triereis seams.


title: Trireme

text: Triremes required a great deal of upkeep in order to stay afloat, as references to the replacement of ropes, sails, rudders, oars and masts in the middle of campaigns suggest. They also would become waterlogged if left in the sea for too long. In order to prevent this from happening, ships would have to be pulled from the water during the night. The use of lightwoods meant that the ship could be carried ashore by as few as 140 men. Beaching the ships at night, however, would leave the troops vulnerable to surprise attacks. While well-maintained triremes would last up to 25 years, during the Peloponnesian War, Athens had to build nearly 20 triremes a year to maintain their fleet of 300.


title: Trireme

text: The Athenian trireme had two great cables of about 47 mm in diameter and twice the ship's length called "hypozomata" (undergirding), and carried two spares. They were possibly rigged fore and aft from end to end along the middle line of the hull just under the main beams and tensioned to 13.5 tonnes force. The "hypozomata" were considered important and secret: their export from Athens was a capital offense. This cable would act as a stretched tendon straight down the middle of the hull, and would have prevented hogging. Additionally, hull plank butts would remain in compression in all but the most severe sea conditions, reducing working of joints and consequent leakage. The "hypozomata" would also have significantly braced the structure of the trireme against the stresses of ramming, giving it an important advantage in combat. According to material scientist J.E. Gordon: "The "hupozoma" was therefore an essential part of the hulls of these ships; they were unable to fight, or even to go to sea at all, without it. Just as it used to be the practice to disarm modern warships by removing the breech-blocks from the guns, so, in classical times, disarmament commissioners used to disarm triremes by removing the "hupozomata"."


title: Trireme

text: Excavations of the ship sheds ("neōsoikoi", νεώσοικοι) at the harbour of Zea in Piraeus, which was the main war harbour of ancient Athens, were first carried out by Dragatsis and Wilhelm Dörpfeld in the 1880s. These have provided us with a general outline of the Athenian trireme. The sheds were ca. 40 m long and just 6 m wide. These dimensions are corroborated by the evidence of Vitruvius, whereby the individual space allotted to each rower was 2 cubits. With the Doric cubit of 0.49 m, this results in an overall ship length of just under 37 m. The height of the sheds' interior was established as 4.026 metres, leading to estimates that the height of the hull above the water surface was ca. 2.15 metres. Its draught was relatively shallow, about 1 metre, which, in addition to the relatively flat keel and low weight, allowed it to be beached easily.


title: Trireme

text: Construction of the trireme differed from modern practice. The construction of a trireme was expensive and required around 6,000 man-days of labour to complete. The ancient Mediterranean practice was to build the outer hull first, and the ribs afterwards. To secure and add strength to the hull, cables ("hypozōmata") were employed, fitted in the keel and stretched by means of windlasses. Hence the triremes were often called "girded" when in commission.


title: Trireme

text: The materials from which the trireme was constructed were an important aspect of its design. The three principal timbers included fir, pine, and cedar. Primarily the choice in timber depended on where the construction took place. For example, in Syria and Phoenicia, triereis were made of cedar, because pine was not readily available. Pine is stronger and more resistant to decay, but it is heavy, unlike fir, which was used because it was lightweight. The frame and internal structure would consist of pine and fir for a compromise between durability and weight.


title: Trireme

text: Another very strong type of timber is oak; this was primarily used for the hulls of triereis, to withstand the force of hauling ashore. Other ships would usually have their hulls made of pine, because they would usually come ashore via a port or with the use of an anchor. It was necessary to ride the triereis onto the shores because there simply was no time to anchor a ship during war and gaining control of enemy shores was crucial in the advancement of an invading army. (Petersen) The joints of the ship required finding wood that was capable of absorbing water but was not completely dried out to the point where no water absorption could occur. There would be gaps between the planks of the hull when the ship was new, but, once submerged, the planks would absorb the water and expand, thus forming a watertight hull.


title: Trireme

text: Problems would occur, for example, when shipbuilders would use green wood for the hull; when green timber is allowed to dry, it loses moisture, which causes cracks in the wood that could cause catastrophic damage to the ship. The sailyards and masts were preferably made from fir, because fir trees were naturally tall, and provided these parts in usually a single piece. Making durable rope consisted of using both papyrus and white flax; the idea to use such materials is suggested by evidence to have originated in Egypt. In addition, ropes began being made from a variety of esparto grass in the later third century BC.


title: Trireme

text: The use of light woods meant that the ship could be carried ashore by as few as 140 men, but also that the hull soaked up water, which adversely affected its speed and maneuverability. But it was still faster than other warships.


title: Trireme

text: Once the triremes were seaworthy, it is argued that they were highly decorated with, "eyes, nameplates, painted figureheads, and various ornaments". These decorations were used both to show the wealth of the patrician and to make the ship frightening to the enemy. The home port of each trireme was signaled by the wooden statue of a deity located above the bronze ram on the front of the ship. In the case of Athens, since most of the fleet's triremes were paid for by wealthy citizens, there was a natural sense of competition among the patricians to create the "most impressive" trireme, both to intimidate the enemy and to attract the best oarsmen. Of all military expenditure, triremes were the most labor- and (in terms of men and money) investment-intensive.


title: Trireme

text: The ship's primary propulsion came from the 170 oars ("kōpai"), arranged in three rows, with one man per oar. Evidence for this is provided by Thucydides, who records that the Corinthian oarsmen carried "each his oar, cushion ("hypersion") and oarloop". The ship also had two masts, a main ("histos megas") and a small foremast ("histos akateios"), with square sails, while steering was provided by two steering oars at the stern (one at the port side, one to starboard).


title: Trireme

text: Classical sources indicate that the trireme was capable of sustained speeds of ca. 6 knots at relatively leisurely oaring. There is also a reference by Xenophon of a single day's voyage from Byzantium to Heraclea Pontica, which translates as an average speed of 7.37 knots. These figures seem to be corroborated by the tests conducted with the reconstructed "Olympias": a maximum speed of 8 knots and a steady speed of 4 knots could be maintained, with half the crew resting at a time. Given the imperfect nature of the reconstructed ship, as well as the fact that it was manned by totally untrained modern men and women, it is reasonable to suggest that ancient triremes, expertly built and navigated by trained men, would attain higher speeds.


title: Trireme

text: The distance a trireme could cover in a given day depended much on the weather. On a good day, the oarsmen, rowing for 6–8 hours, could propel the ship between . There were rare instances, however, when experienced crews and new ships were able to cover nearly twice that distance (Thucydides mentions a trireme travelling 300 kilometres in one day). The commanders of the triremes also had to stay aware of the condition of their men. They had to keep their crews comfortably paced, so as not to exhaust them before battle.


title: Trireme

text: The total complement ("plērōma") of the ship was about 200. These were divided into the 170 rowers ("eretai"), who provided the ship's motive power, the deck crew headed by the trierarch and a marine detachment. For the crew of Athenian triremes, the ships were an extension of their democratic beliefs. Rich and poor rowed alongside each other. Victor Davis Hanson argues that this "served the larger civic interest of acculturating thousands as they worked together in cramped conditions and under dire circumstances."


title: Trireme

text: During the Peloponnesian War, there were a few variations to the typical crew layout of a trireme. One was a drastically reduced number of oarsmen, so as to use the ship as a troop transport. The thranites would row from the top benches while the rest of the space, below, would be filled with hoplites. In another variation, the Athenians used 10 or so trireme for transporting horses. Such triremes had 60 oarsmen, and rest of the ship was for horses.


title: Trireme

text: The trireme was designed for day-long journeys, with no capacity to stay at sea overnight, or to carry the provisions needed to sustain its crew overnight. Each crewman required 2 gallons (7.6 l) of fresh drinking water to stay hydrated each day, but it is unknown quite how this was stored and distributed. This meant that all those aboard were dependent upon the land and peoples of wherever they landed each night for supplies. Sometimes this would entail traveling up to eighty kilometres in order to procure provisions. In the Peloponnesian War, the beached Athenian fleet was caught unawares on more than one occasion, while out looking for food (Battle of Syracuse and Battle of Aegospotami). Cities visited, which suddenly found themselves needing to provide for large numbers of sailors, usually did not mind the extra business, though those in charge of the fleet had to be careful not to deplete them of resources.


title: Trireme

text: In Athens, the ship's captain was known as the trierarch ("triērarchos"). He was a wealthy Athenian citizen (usually from the class of the "pentakosiomedimnoi"), responsible for manning, fitting out and maintaining the ship for his liturgical year at least; the ship itself belonged to Athens. The "triērarchia" was one of the liturgies of ancient Athens; although it afforded great prestige, it constituted a great financial burden, so that in the 4th century, it was often shared by two citizens, and after 397 BC it was assigned to special boards.


title: Trireme

text: The deck and command crew ("hypēresia") was headed by the helmsman, the "kybernētēs", who was always an experienced seaman and was often the commander of the vessel. These experienced sailors were to be found on the upper levels of the triremes. Other officers were the bow lookout ("prōreus" or "prōratēs"), the boatswain ("keleustēs"), the quartermaster ("pentēkontarchos"), the shipwright ("naupēgos"), the piper ("aulētēs") who gave the rowers' rhythm and two superintendents ("toicharchoi"), in charge of the rowers on each side of the ship. What constituted these sailors' experience was a combination of superior rowing skill (physical stamina and/or consistency in hitting with a full stroke) and previous battle experience. The sailors were likely in their thirties and forties. In addition, there were ten sailors handling the masts and the sails.


title: Trireme

text: In the ancient navies, crews were composed not of galley slaves but of free men. In the Athenian case in particular, service in ships was the integral part of the military service provided by the lower classes, the "thētai", although metics and hired foreigners were also accepted. Although it has been argued that slaves formed part of the rowing crew in the Sicilian Expedition, a typical Athenian trireme crew during the Peloponnesian War consisted of 80 citizens, 60 metics and 60 foreign hands. Indeed, in the few emergency cases where slaves were used to crew ships, these were deliberately set free, usually before being employed. For instance, the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse once set all slaves of Syracuse free to man his galleys, employing thus freedmen, but otherwise relied on citizens and foreigners as oarsmen.


title: Trireme

text: In the Athenian navy, the crews enjoyed long practice in peacetime, becoming skilled professionals and ensuring Athens' supremacy in naval warfare. The rowers were divided according to their positions in the ship into "thranitai", "zygitai", and "thalamitai". According to the excavated Naval Inventories, lists of ships' equipment compiled by the Athenian naval boards, there were:


title: Trireme

text: Most of the rowers (108 of the 170 - the "zygitai" and "thalamitai"), due to the design of the ship, were unable to see the water and therefore, rowed blindly, therefore coordinating the rowing required great skill and practice. It is not known exactly how this was done, but there are literary and visual references to the use of gestures and pipe playing to convey orders to rowers. In the sea trials of the reconstruction "Olympias", it was evident that this was a difficult problem to solve, given the amount of noise that a full rowing crew generated. In Aristophanes' play "The Frogs" two different rowing chants can be found: ""ryppapai"" and ""o opop"", both corresponding quite well to the sound and motion of the oar going through its full cycle.


title: Trireme

text: A varying number of marines ("epibatai"), usually 10–20, were carried aboard for boarding actions. At the Battle of Salamis, each Athenian ship was recorded to have 14 hoplites and 4 archers (usually Scythian mercenaries) on board, but Herodotus narrates that the Chiots had 40 hoplites on board at Lade and that the Persian ships carried a similar number. This reflects the different practices between the Athenians and other, less professional navies. Whereas the Athenians relied on speed and maneuverability, where their highly trained crews had the advantage, other states favored boarding, in a situation that closely mirrored the one that developed during the First Punic War. Grappling hooks would be used both as a weapon and for towing damaged ships (ally or enemy) back to shore. When the triremes were alongside each other, marines would either spear the enemy or jump across and cut the enemy down with their swords. As the presence of too many heavily armed hoplites on deck tended to destabilize the ship, the "epibatai" were normally seated, only rising to carry out any boarding action. The hoplites belonged to the middle social classes, so that they came immediately next to the trierarch in status aboard the ship.


title: Trireme

text: In the ancient world, naval combat relied on two methods: boarding and ramming. Artillery in the form of ballistas and catapults was widespread, especially in later centuries, but its inherent technical limitations meant that it could not play a decisive role in combat. The method for boarding was to brush alongside the enemy ship, with oars drawn in, in order to break the enemy's oars and render the ship immobile (which disables the enemy ship from simply getting away), then to board the ship and engage in hand to hand combat.


title: Trireme

text: Rams ("embola") were fitted to the prows of warships, and were used to rupture the hull of the enemy ship. The preferred method of attack was to come in from astern, with the aim not of creating a single hole, but of rupturing as big a length of the enemy vessel as possible. The speed necessary for a successful impact depended on the angle of attack; the greater the angle, the lesser the speed required. At 60 degrees, 4 knots was enough to penetrate the hull, while it increased to 8 knots at 30 degrees. If the target for some reason was in motion in the direction of the attacker, even less speed was required, and especially if the hit came amidships. The Athenians especially became masters in the art of ramming, using light, un-decked ("aphraktai") triremes.


title: Trireme

text: In either case, the masts and railings of the ship were taken down prior to engagement to reduce the opportunities for opponents' grappling hooks.


title: Trireme

text: Unlike the naval warfare of other eras, boarding an enemy ship was not the primary offensive action of triremes. Triremes' small size allowed for a limited number of marines to be carried aboard. During the 5th and 4th centuries, the trireme's strength was in its maneuverability and speed, not its armor or boarding force. That said, fleets less confident in their ability to ram were prone to load more marines onto their ships.


title: Trireme

text: On the deck of a typical trireme in the Peloponnesian War there were 4 or 5 archers and 10 or so marines. These few troops were peripherally effective in an offensive sense, but critical in providing defense for the oarsmen. Should the crew of another trireme board, the marines were all that stood between the enemy troops and the slaughter of the men below. It has also been recorded that if a battle were to take place in the calmer water of a harbor, oarsmen would join the offensive and throw stones (from a stockpile aboard) to aid the marines in harassing/attacking other ships.


title: Trireme

text: Squadrons of triremes employed a variety of tactics. The "periplous" (Gk., "sailing around") involved outflanking or encircling the enemy so as to attack them in the vulnerable rear; the "diekplous" (Gk., "Sailing out through") involved a concentrated charge so as to break a hole in the enemy line, allowing galleys to break through and then wheel to attack the enemy line from behind; and the "kyklos" (Gk., "circle") and the "mēnoeidēs kyklos" (Gk. "half-circle"; literally, "moon-shaped (i.e. crescent-shaped) circle"), were defensive tactics to be employed against these manoeuvres. In all of these manoeuvres, the ability to accelerate faster, row faster, and turn more sharply than one's enemy was very important.


title: Trireme

text: Athens' strength in the Peloponnesian War came from its navy, whereas Sparta's came from its land-based Hoplite army. As the war progressed however the Spartans came to realize that if they were to undermine Pericles' strategy of outlasting the Peloponnesians by remaining within the walls of Athens indefinitely (a strategy made possible by Athens' Long Walls and fortified port of Piraeus), they were going to have to do something about Athens superior naval force. Once Sparta gained Persia as an ally, they had the funds necessary to construct the new naval fleets necessary to combat the Athenians. Sparta was able to build fleet after fleet, eventually destroying the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami. The Spartan General Brasidas summed up the difference in approach to naval warfare between the Spartans and the Athenians: "Athenians relied on speed and maneuverability on the open seas to ram at will clumsier ships; in contrast, a Peloponnesian armada might win only when it fought near land in calm and confined waters, had the greater number of ships in a local theater, and if its better-trained marines on deck and hoplites on shore could turn a sea battle into a contest of infantry." In addition, compared to the high-finesse of the Athenian navy (superior oarsmen who could outflank and ram enemy triremes from the side), the Spartans (as well as their allies and other enemies of Athens) would focus mainly on ramming Athenian triremes head on. It would be these tactics, in combination with those outlined by Brasidas, that led to the defeat of the Athenian fleet at the Second Battle of Syracuse during the Sicilian Expedition.


title: Trireme

text: Once a naval battle was under way, for the men involved, there were numerous ways for them to meet their end. Drowning was perhaps the most common way for a crew member to perish. Once a trireme had been rammed, the ensuing panic that engulfed the men trapped below deck no doubt extended the amount of time it took the men to escape. Inclement weather would greatly decrease the crew's odds of survival, leading to a situation like that off Cape Athos in 411 (12 of 10,000 men were saved). An estimated 40,000 Persians died in the Battle of Salamis. In the Peloponnesian War, after the Battle of Arginusae, six Athenian generals were executed for failing to rescue several hundred of their men clinging to wreckage in the water.


title: Trireme

text: If the men did not drown, they might be taken prisoner by the enemy. In the Peloponnesian War, "Sometimes captured crews were brought ashore and either cut down or maimed - often grotesquely, by cutting off the right hand or thumb to guarantee that they could never row again." The image found on an early-5th-century black-figure, depicting prisoners bound and thrown into the sea being pushed and prodded under water with poles and spears, shows that enemy treatment of captured sailors in the Peloponnesian War was often brutal. Being speared amid the wreckage of destroyed ships was likely a common cause of death for sailors in the Peloponnesian War.


title: Trireme

text: Naval battles were far more of a spectacle than the hoplite battles on land. Sometimes the battles raging at sea were watched by thousands of spectators on shore. Along with this greater spectacle, came greater consequences for the outcome of any given battle. Whereas the average percentage of fatalities from a land battle were between 10 and 15%, in a sea battle, the forces engaged ran the risk of losing their entire fleet. The number of ships and men in battles was sometimes very high. At the Battle of Arginusae for example, 263 ships were involved, making for a total of 55,000 men, and at the Battle of Aegospotami more than 300 ships and 60,000 seamen were involved. In Battle of Aegospotami, the city-state of Athens lost what was left of its navy: the once 'invincible' thalassocracy lost 170 ships (costing some 400 talents), and the majority of the crews were either killed, captured or lost.


title: Trireme

text: During the Hellenistic period, the light trireme was supplanted by larger warships in dominant navies, especially the pentere/quinquereme. The maximum practical number of oar banks a ship could have was three. So the number in the type name did not refer to the banks of oars any more (as for biremes and triremes), but to the number of rowers per vertical section, with several men on each oar. The reason for this development was the increasing use of armour on the bows of warships against ramming attacks, which again required heavier ships for a successful attack. This increased the number of rowers per ship, and also made it possible to use less well-trained personnel for moving these new ships. This change was accompanied by an increased reliance on tactics like boarding, missile skirmishes and using warships as platforms for artillery.


title: Trireme

text: Triremes continued to be the mainstay of all smaller navies. While the Hellenistic kingdoms did develop the quinquereme and even larger ships, most navies of the Greek homeland and the smaller colonies could only afford triremes. They were used by the Diadochi Empires and sea powers like Syracuse, Carthage and later Rome. The difference to the classical 5th century Athenian ships was that they were armoured against ramming and carried significantly more marines. Lightened versions of the trireme and smaller vessels were often used as auxiliaries, and still performed quite effectively against the heavier ships, thanks to their greater manoeuvrability.


title: Trireme

text: With the rise of Rome the biggest fleet of quinqueremes temporarily ruled the Mediterranean, but during the civil wars after Caesar's death the fleet was on the wrong side and a new warfare with light liburnas was developed. By Imperial times, Rome controlled the entirety of the Mediterranean and thus the need to maintain a powerful navy was minimal, as the only enemy they would be facing is pirates. As a result, the fleet was relatively small and had mostly political influence, controlling the grain supply and fighting pirates, who usually employed light biremes and liburnians. But instead of the successful liburnians of the Greek Civil War, it was again centred around light triremes, but still with many marines. Out of this type of ship, the dromon developed.


title: Trireme

text: In 1985–1987 a shipbuilder in Piraeus, financed by Frank Welsh (an author, Suffolk banker, writer and trireme enthusiast), advised by historian J. S. Morrison and naval architect John F. Coates (who with Welsh founded the Trireme Trust that initiated and managed the project), and informed by evidence from underwater archaeology, built an Athenian-style trireme, "Olympias".


title: Trireme

text: Crewed by 170 volunteer oarsmen, "Olympias" in 1988 achieved 9 knots (17 km/h or 10.5 mph). These results, achieved with inexperienced crew, suggest that the ancient writers were not exaggerating about straight-line performance. In addition, "Olympias" was able to execute a 180 degree turn in one minute and in an arc no wider than two and one half (2.5) ship-lengths. Additional sea trials took place in 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1994. In 2004 "Olympias" was used ceremonially to transport the Olympic Flame from the port of Keratsini to the main port of Piraeus as the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay entered its final stages in the run-up to the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.


title: Trireme

text: The builders of the reconstruction project concluded that it effectively proved what had previously been in doubt, i.e., that Athenian triremes were arranged with the crew positioned in a staggered arrangement on three levels with one person per oar. This architecture would have made optimum use of the available internal dimensions. However, since modern humans are on average approximately 6 cm (2 inches) taller than Ancient Greeks (and the same relative dimensions can be presumed for oarsmen and other athletes), the construction of a craft which followed the precise dimensions of the ancient vessel led to cramped rowing conditions and consequent restrictions on the modern crew's ability to propel the vessel with full efficiency, which perhaps explains why the ancient speed records stand unbroken.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Age of Mythology (AoM) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on October 30, 2002, in North America and a week later in Europe.


title: Age of Mythology

text: A spin-off from the "Age of Empires" series, "Age of Mythology" takes some of its inspiration from mythology and legends of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse, rather than from actual historical events. Many gameplay elements are similar to the "Age of Empires" series. Its campaign follows an Atlantean admiral, Arkantos, who is forced to travel through the lands of the game's three cultures, hunting for a cyclops who is in league with Poseidon against Atlantis.


title: Age of Mythology

text: "Age of Mythology" was commercially successful, going platinum four months after its release after selling over one million units. In 2003, it was followed by an expansion pack, "". On May 8, 2014, "Age of Mythology: Extended Edition" was released for Windows via Steam. This was followed by a second expansion pack, "Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon", released on January 28, 2016. On October 25, 2022, "Age of Mythology: Retold" was announced.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Like many other real-time strategy games, "Age of Mythology" is based on defeating enemy units and towns, building your own units and towns, and training villagers and fighters. In this way, players are able to defeat and conquer rival towns and civilizations. Players advance their tribe through four "Ages": starting in the Archaic Age, the player may upgrade to the Classical Age, the Heroic Age, and finally, the Mythic Age. Each upgrade to a higher Age unlocks new units and technologies for the player, which strengthens their settlement. However, upgrading requires a sum of resources to be paid and a certain prerequisite building to be constructed.


title: Age of Mythology

text: There are three playable cultures in "Age of Mythology": the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse. Each culture has three "major gods"—important deities such as Ra, Zeus, or Odin. The player chooses their major god before the game begins. Every time a player advances to the next age, a "minor god" is selected. Minor gods are slightly less significant historically than their major counterparts. Some minor gods include Bast and Aphrodite. All gods grant the player unique technologies, myth units, and a unique "god power"—A one-time special ability that can either damage an opponent, or benefit the player that uses it.


title: Age of Mythology

text: There are four major resources in "Age of Mythology": food, wood, gold, and favor; unlike previous games by Ensemble Studios, this game does not include the stone resource. Resources can be used to train units, construct buildings, and research technologies, among other things. Civilian units—namely, the Greek villagers, Norse gatherers and dwarfs, the Egyptian laborers, and fishing boats—are used to gather resources. Hunting animals, gathering berries, harvesting livestock, farming, and fishing are all methods by which food can be gathered. Wood is gathered only by chopping down trees, and gold is gathered from either gold mines or from trade. Players can purchase upgrades that increase the rate of gathering these resources. Favor is acquired in different ways by different cultures: Greek players gain it by having villagers pray at temples; Egyptian players earn it by building monuments; and Norse players receive it by fighting/hunting animals or by possessing heroes. Resources can be exchanged at a player's market, with the exception of favor.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Every unit in the game takes up between one and five "population slots". Building additional houses or Town Centers—the main building in a player's town—increases the population capacity, up to a maximum of 300.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Units can be classified into seven categories; infantry, archers, cavalry—the three of which are broadly classified as human units—siege units, naval units, heroes, and myth units (monsters and other creatures from mythology).


title: Age of Mythology

text: The rock-paper-scissors model governs most units in battle. For example, infantry does additional damage to cavalry, cavalry does additional damage to archers, and archers do additional damage to infantry. The same rock-paper-scissors formation exists in the three different types of naval units—arrow ships, siege ships, and hammer ships. Siege units are generally exempt from the rock-paper-scissors model but are instead able to destroy buildings easily while being vulnerable to cavalry attacks. Heroes are extremely effective against myth units, which in turn do large amounts of damage against human units. Heroes are also able to collect relics, which grant the player additional economic or military bonuses when deposited in a player's temple. Most units can be upgraded, making them better at certain tasks.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Buildings in "Age of Mythology" can generally be split into three categories: economic, military, and defensive. The most important economic building is the Town Center, which is similar to the building of the same name in the "Age of Empires" series games. Most civilian units are trained at the Town Center, as are some improvements. Most importantly, players advance Age via the building. The Town Center provides 15 population slots, and building additional houses will earn the player 10 additional slots per house. In the Heroic Age, players may claim settlements (unclaimed Town Centres) for additional population slots. In some cases owning all town centres will trigger a countdown to victory. Other economic buildings include the farm and market.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Buildings are able to research improvements, as well as provide resources for the player. All units except civilians and myth units are trained at military buildings. These buildings differ in name and purpose between culture, but all are able to train similar units. Military buildings are also used to research military specific technologies, such as armor upgrades, and attack improvements.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Walls and towers are defensive structures, which are not able to train units, and are used only for the purposes of defense. They are able to research some upgrades, although these are generally only useful to the building performing the research. Another type of building available to players, is a Wonder: a grand building that represents an architectural achievement of the civilization. In certain game modes, once a player builds a wonder, a ten-minute countdown begins. If the wonder is still standing after the countdown ends, the player who built the wonder wins.


title: Age of Mythology

text: The "Age of Mythology" editor is far more advanced than that of its predecessor, the "" scenario editor. As well as standard unit placement facilities, the editor allows units to be overlapped, and it facilitates for large mountains, and steep terrain. Triggers, a popular aspect of scenario design in "", are also present in "Age of Mythology"'s editor, as well as cinematics and other special effects.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Unlike the campaign modes in "Age of Empires" and "", "Age of Mythology" only has one central campaign, "Fall of the Trident". The campaign is significantly longer than campaigns in previous games, with a total of 32 scenarios.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Multiplayer is a highly popular aspect of "Age of Mythology". Most multiplayer games are played through Ensemble Studios Online (ESO), or via a direct LAN or IP connection.


title: Age of Mythology

text: "Age of Mythology" included unlimited free multiplayer accounts on ESO. it is no longer possible to create new accounts but access to already created ones is still possible. Similar in function to Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net, ESO allows players to play matches, as well as chat with other players.


title: Age of Mythology

text: In multiplayer games, there are seven different game types available, all of which are provided as standard with the game: "Supremacy"—the standard game mode—includes randomly generated map and all gameplay aspects; "Conquest" is similar to Supremacy, but victory is only possible by defeating all other players; in "Deathmatch" players begin the game with high resources, but the game is otherwise the same as Supremacy; in "Lightning", the gameplay is identical to Supremacy, but the game plays at twice the normal speed; in "Nomad" mode, players start with one civilian unit, and no Town Center, and must build up on a settlement; the goal of "King of the Hill" is to control a monument in the center of the map for a set period of time; and in "Sudden Death", a player loses if their Town Center is destroyed, and they fail to rebuild it within a set period of time.


title: Age of Mythology

text: Multiplayer tournaments and LAN parties are popular throughout the world, with many players visiting computer gaming lounges to participate.