In the 4th century CE the nimble Roman liburnian began to change: shipwrights decked it over, swapped its underwater ram for a beak-like spur that could ride up and smash an enemy’s oars, and experimented with the triangular lateen sail that caught the wind better than a square cloth. Sailors soon called the new hybrid dromōn, the ‘runner’, and it became the fast spearhead of early Byzantine fleets.When Belisarius sailed for Africa in the 530s his monoreme dromons—about thirty-two metres long with fifty oars—already showed the type’s signature look: a single mast with a great lateen, twin quarter rudders, a forecastle hiding the bronze siphon for Greek fire, and a shield-lined rail that let the rowers double as fighters once the ships closed.Constant warfare with Arab and Slav sea raiders drove further refinement. By the 9th century the hull carried two banks of oars, giving the bireme dromon roughly 120 rowers beneath and above the deck, while wooden fighting towers, deeper holds and extra siphons turned it into a floating artillery platform. Three main variants filled imperial musters—the ousiakon, the larger pamphylon and the full dromon proper—joined by smaller galeai scouts and broader chelandia built to ferry cavalry. Archaeologists at Yenikapı have found their sturdy pine keels, proof of a centralized navy that could turn out identical war galleys on demand.After 1100 Italian city-states introduced lighter, longer galleys that could outsail and outrow the old runner. The dromon gradually disappeared from the order of battle, yet its decked hull, lateen rig and spur lived on, shaping every Mediterranean war galley until cannon rewrote the rules of sea fighting.

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Byzantine Dromon Ship