Why quinqueremes became the Punic Wars' core warship

One reconstruction gives a quinquereme five rowers in each rowing group, with two men on each of two oars and one on a third, rather than five stacked banks of oars. More rowers gave an oared warship the power to accelerate and deliver a heavier blow with its ram, the ship's principal weapon. By the Punic Wars, smaller triremes lacked the strength and staying power expected of the main battle fleet. Roman hulls were heavier and less nimble than Carthaginian ships, but also harder to disable. A ram that stuck could expose the attacker to Roman boarding troops.