This frieze shows two identical ships filled with armed men but sailing along divergent routes (possibly a tactical manoeuvre in battle). The vessels are fitted with two rows of over twelve oars each side (biremes), while the bow – in the part now missing – was probably equipped with a rostrum. The great apotropaic eye traditionally believed to watch over navigation remains visible. At the stern it is possible to recognize the helmsman seated behind aparapet. Equipped with spears, circular brimmed helmets and oval shields, the soldiers are lined up on deck, possibly in preparation of a landing to fight on land. Their tightly-packed rows, shields at the ready and wide-legged stance hint at imminent fighting.
Naval war scenes were a particularly common motif on reliefs between the end of the Republic and the early Augustan age, in memory of the great battles fought between the mid-First Century BCE and the decisive victory of Augustus over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (31 BCE). This frieze, which comes from the area around Cumae, may refer to the war against Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey the Great, and could be from the tomb of a veteran who had taken part in the crucial Battle of Naulochus (36 BCE), won in the name of Augustus by the fleet stationed on the Phlegraean coast and commanded by Agrippa.