86 Db DONALDSON, ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATHENIAN TRIREME, 



holes for the oars, whereas the corresponding or lower part of the trireme was pierced for 

 27 holes on each side. And as the interscalmium, or space between the ports, was two cubits 

 (Vitruv. I. 2), or 3 feet 6 inches, we should require a length of 105 feet above, and 91 feet 

 below, exclusively of the steerage and bow, or parexeiresia. That the trireme and the oldest 

 penteconter were exactly of the same breadth of beam, I will prove directly. And of course 

 the height was not increased more than was necessary for the accommodation of the additional 

 tiers of rowers. 



Having regard then to that permanence of numerical arrangements which is so remarkable 

 among the ancient Greeks, we must see at once that the broad-side of the penteconter cor- 

 responded to the enomoty or triakad, a body of 25 to 30 men, sworn to act together, and 

 constituting the basis of the Greek military system. Consequently, the whole crew of the 

 penteconter corresponded to the pentekostys, and the crew of the trireme was a lochus, con- 

 sisting, with the epibatcB, of four pentekostyes, which was the Lacedaemonian arrangement at 

 the first battle of Mantineia (Thuc. v, 68), or it was two lochi of 100 men each, if we prefer 

 Xenophon's subdivision {Rep. Lac. ii, 4). 



In regard to these general features all is plain enough. Our difficulty commences, when 

 we come to speak of the arrangements for seating the three tiers of rowers, and it is here that 

 I hope to clear up some obscurities, and throw a little new light on the subject, Dr Arnold 

 has called this " an indiscoverable" or " unconquerable problem " (Rom. Hist. in. 572 on 

 Thucyd, iv. 32), and Mr James Smith, in his elaborate and interesting Essay On the Voyage 

 and Shipwreck of St Paul, has proposed a solution quite at variance with the meaning of the 

 Greek words which distinguish the classes of rowers*. Even Bockh, in his Archives of the 

 Athenian Navy, can give us no definite information, and inclines to the erroneous belief that 



The following is Mr Smith's tiansveise section of a trireme. (Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, p. 194.) 



a. Oar of thalamite seated on deck, 



b. Oar of zygite seated on stool on deck. 



c. Oar of thranite seated on stool on gangway. 



Besides the objection stated in the text, that this arrangement will not explain the Greek names of the three tiers of 

 rowers, it is impossible to conceiTe that the best rowers should have been placed on a platform within reach of the enemies' 

 shot. 



