Dromon

The dromon (from Greek δρόμων, dromōn, lit. 'runner'), a type of galley, became the most important type of warship of the Byzantine navy^[2] from the 5th to 12th centuries AD, after which the Italian-style galley superseded it. It developed from the ancient liburnian,^[3] which was the mainstay of the Roman navy during classical antiquity.^[4]

The Middle English word dromond and the Old French word dromont derive from the Greek word; these names identified any particularly large medieval ship.^[5]

^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 144. sfn error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFPryorJeffreys2006 (help)
^ Pryor, John; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (1 July 2006). The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca 500-1204. The Medieval Mediterranean, ISSN 0928-5520, volume 62. Leiden: Brill. p. 1. ISBN 9789047409939. Retrieved 20 May 2025. At sea, the succession of the dromon to the Roman bireme liburna and its predecessors [...] has been presented in the conventional historiography of the maritime history of the Mediterranean as marking a transition from Rome to Byzantium.
^ Pryor, John; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (1 July 2006). "The origins of the Dromon". The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca 500-1204. The Medieval Mediterranean, ISSN 0928-5520, volume 62. Leiden: Brill. p. 125. ISBN 9789047409939. Retrieved 20 May 2025. There can be little doubt that the word dromōn became used for some war galleys, or perhaps rather for some specific type of war galley, because these galleys were unusually fast, faster than the standard Roman liburnae war galleys of the late Empire [...].
^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, pp. 123–126 harvnb error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFPryorJeffreys2006 (help).
^ The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, "Dromond".

[FOOTNOTEPryorJeffreys2006144-1] Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 144. sfn error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFPryorJeffreys2006 (help)

[2] Pryor, John; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (1 July 2006). The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca 500-1204. The Medieval Mediterranean, ISSN 0928-5520, volume 62. Leiden: Brill. p. 1. ISBN 9789047409939. Retrieved 20 May 2025. At sea, the succession of the dromon to the Roman bireme liburna and its predecessors [...] has been presented in the conventional historiography of the maritime history of the Mediterranean as marking a transition from Rome to Byzantium.

[3] Pryor, John; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (1 July 2006). "The origins of the Dromon". The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca 500-1204. The Medieval Mediterranean, ISSN 0928-5520, volume 62. Leiden: Brill. p. 125. ISBN 9789047409939. Retrieved 20 May 2025. There can be little doubt that the word dromōn became used for some war galleys, or perhaps rather for some specific type of war galley, because these galleys were unusually fast, faster than the standard Roman liburnae war galleys of the late Empire [...].

[4] Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, pp. 123–126 harvnb error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFPryorJeffreys2006 (help).

[5] The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, "Dromond".

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]