TRIREME trī’ rem (τριήρης). An ancient Gr. or Rom. galley with three banks of oars on each side. When the high priest Jason (c. 174-171 b.c.) sent envoys to Tyre with three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules, they thought it wrong to use the money for this purpose and used it instead for the construction of triremes (2 Macc 4:18-20).