Πρόποδες whereby they were managed as occasion required. Пgizodes were small cords below the pedes, which were so contrived as to be loosed and contracted by them the use of both these was in taking the winds, for by them the sails were contracted, dilated, or changed from one side to another, as there was occasion. Mirugia were those whereby the mast was erected or let down'; others will have them to belong to the sails. Пgotovo were cords, which passing through a pully at the top of the mast, were tied on one side to the prow, on the other to the stern, to keep the mast fixed and immoveable. The materials of which these and other cords were composed, were at first seldom any thing but leathern thongs; afterwards they used hemp, flax, broom, palm-leaves, philyry, the bark of trees, as the cherry, teil-tree, vine, maple, carpine, &c. CHAP. XVII. Of the Instruments of War in Ships. WHAT I have hitherto delivered concerning the parts and construction of ships has been spoken in general, without respect to any particular sort of them; it remains, therefore, that, in the next place, I give you a brief account of what was farther necessary to equip a man of war. "Eμboλov, rostrum, was a beak of wood, fortified with brass, whence it is called xxxwμa vev in Diodorus, and ships have sometimes the epithet of χαλκέμβολοι: one or more of these was always fastened to the prow, to annoy the enemy's ships, and the whole prow was sometimes covered with brass, to guard it from rocks and assaults. The person that first used these beaks is said to have been one Pisæus, an Italian; for it will not be allowed that the primitive Greeks had any knowledge of them, since no such thing is mentioned in Homer, which could scarce have happened, had they been invented at the time of the Trojan war: yet Eschylus gives Nestor's ship the epithet of dixiuonos, or armed with ten beaks; and Iphigenia in Euripides speaks of brazen beaks: u Apollonii Schol. $ Lib. xx. ⚫t Plin. lib. vii. cap. 56. Μή μοι χαλκεμβολάδων Πρύμνας ἅδ ̓ Αὐλὶς δέξασθαι Τάσδ', εἰς ὅρμες. O! that these ships with brazen beaks But it may justly be questioned, whether these beaks do not take their description from the practice of their own times; a thing frequent enough with men of that profession. These beaks were at first long and high, but afterwards it was found more convenient to have them short and firm, and placed so low as to pierce the enemy's ships under water; this was the invention of one Aristo, a Corinthian, who communicated it to the Syracusans, in their wars with the Athenians, against whom it proved a considerable advantage, for, by these new beaks, several of the Athenian men of war were overturned, or torn in pieces at the first shock. Above the beak was another instrument, called rgosubonis and it appears from ancient medals, that the beaks themselves were usually adorned with various figures of animals, &c. ExaTides were pieces of wood, placed on each side of the prow ", to guard it from the enemy's beaks, because prows are usually compared to faces, these were thought to resemble ears, whence their name seems to have been derived, for those are mistaken that would have them to belong to the hind-deck *. Κατατρώματα, σανιδώματα, or hatches, sometimes called καταφράγ ματα, whence we meet with mi; πεφραγμέναι, κατάφρακτοι, and tecta, covered ships, or men of war: which are frequently opposed to ships of passage or burden, which were gato, and apertæ, uncovered, or without hatches: this covering was of wood, and erected on purpose for soldiers, that they, standing as it were upon an eminence, might level their missive weapons with greater force and certainty against their enemies. In the primitive ages, particularly about the time of the Trojan war, we are told by Thucydides, that the soldiers used to fight upon the foremost and hindermost decks; and therefore, whenever we find Homer speak of ingia vis, which his scholiasts interpret hatches, we are only to understand him of these parts which alone used to be covered in those days. Thus he tells us of Ajax defending the Grecian ships against the attack of the Trojans 2 : And of Ulysses preparing himself for the encounter with Scylla, he speaks thus *: — ε; ἰκρία νηὸς ἔβαιες Πρώτης. Upon the hatches of the foremost deck He went. The other parts of the ship are said to have been first covered by the Thasians b. Beside the coverings of ships already mentioned and called καταφράγματα, there were other coverings to guard the soldiers from their enemies, called παραφράγματα, περιφράγματα, παραπετάσμα τα, παραθλήματα, προκαλύμματα, in Latin, plutei, and sometimes propugnacula. These were commonly hides, or such like materials, hung on both sides of the ship, as well to hinder the waves from falling into it, as to receive the darts cast from the adverse ships, that under these, as walls on both sides, the soldiers might, without danger, annoy their enemies. AsλQi, a certain machine, which, being usually a part of these ships, cannot be omitted in this place. It was a vast and massy piece of lead or iron cast in the form of a dolphin, and hung with cords and pulleys to the sail-yards or mast, which being thrown with great violence into the adverse ships, either penetrated them, and so opened a passage for the rising floods, or by its weight and force sunk them to the bottom of the sea. Another difference betwixt men of war and other ships was, that the former commonly had an helmet engraven on the top of their masts d. CHAP. XVIII. Of the Mariners and Soldiers. WE are told by Thucydides, that among the ancients there were no different ranks of seamen, but the same persons were employed in those duties, which were in later ages executed by divers, to whom they gave the several names of rowers, mariners, and soldiers; whereas, at first, all these were the same men, who laid down their arms to labour at the oar, and perform what a Odyss. μ'. b Plin. lib. vii, cap. 57 Aristophanis Scholiastes, Suidas. d Gyraldus de Navigat. was farther necessary to the government of their ships, but, as often as occasion required, resumed them to assault their enemies: this appears every where in Homer, out of whom I shall observe this one instance: ἐρέται δ' ἐν ἑκάσῃ πεντήκοντα Each ship had fifty rowers that were skill'd These were termed avregira, This was the practice of those times, wherein no great care was taken, no extraordinary preparations made for equipping men of war, but the same vessels were thought sufficient for transportation and fight: afterwards, when the art of naval war began to be improved, it was presently understood that any one of the fore-mentioned occupations was enough to require the whole time and application of the persons employed therein; whence it became customary to furnish their ships of war with the three following sorts of men: Ερέται κωπηλάται, called by Polybius f οἱ ὑπάρχοντες, and by the same author, with Xenophon, rà sλngwμara, though we are told by the scholiast upon Thucydides, that this is a name of very large extent, comprehending not only those that rowed, but all other persons in the ship, and sometimes applied to any thing elsecontained therein. When ships had several banks of oars, the uppermost rowers were called 9gavitas, and their bank, eaves: the lowest, θαλάμιοι, θαλαμίται aud θαλάμακες, and their bank, θάλαμος : those in the middle, Zvyíra, and μsco, and all their banks, how many soever in number, vyd. Every one had a distinct oar, for, except in cases of necessity, one oar was never managed by above one person, as Scheffer hath proved at large; yet their labour and pay were not the same; for such as were placed in the uppermost banks by reason of their distance from the water, and the length of their oars, underwent more toil and labour than those in the inferior banks, and therefore were rewarded with greater wages. The rowers in ships of burden were called sgoysudovauta. i• those in triremes, ginger and the rest seem to have had different appellations from the names of the ships they laboured in. Those that were foremost in the respective banks, and sat nearest the prow, were called #gózzo and on the other side, those who were placed e Suidas, Pollux, lib. i. cap. 9. Thucydides. f Histor. lib. x, 5 Lib. i. h Histor. lib. i. i Pollux, Aristophanis Scholiastes, Suidas, Etymologici Auctor. j Pollux, lib. vii. next the stern were termed ixixano, as being behind their fellows. Their work was esteemed one of the worst and most wretched drudgeries, and therefore the most notorious malefactors were frequently condemned to it; for, beside their incessant toil in rowing, their very rest was uneasy, there being no place to repose their wearied bodies besides the seats whereon they had laboured all the day therefore, whenever the poets speak of their ceasing from labour, there is mention of their lying down upon them: thus Senecak: credità est vento ratis; Fususque transtris miles. Unto the wind the ship was left, To the same purpose Virgil1: -placida laxarant membra quiete Sub remis fusi per dura sedilia nautæ. The crew On the hard benches stretch'd beneath their oars, TRAPP The rest of the ship's crew usually took their rest in the same manner, only the masters m, or persons of quality, were permitted to have clothes spread under them; so we read of Ulysses in Homera: Κάδ' δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ Οδυσσῆς φόρεσαν ῥηγός τε, λίνον τε, Upon the deck soft painted robes they spread POPE. Such as would not be contented with this provision were looked upon as soft and delicate, and unfit to endure the toil and hardships of war; which censure the Athenians passed upon Alcibiades, because he had a bed hung on cords, as we read in Plutarch °. Navrat, mariners were exempt from drudging at the oar, but performed all other duties in the ship; to which end, that all things might be carried on without tumult and confusion, every one had his proper office, as appears from Apollonius and Flaccus's Argonautics, where one is employed in rearing the mast, another in fitting the sail-yards, a third in hoisting the sails, and the rest are bestowed up and down the ship, every one in his proper place: hence they had different titles, as from gueva, sails, the k Agamemnon, v. 437. 1 Eneid, v. 836. m Theophrastus περὶ ἀνελευθερίας. Odyss. . v. 74. • Alcibiade. |