170 SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PHILEBUS OF PLATO, ETC. 
may be met, J think, with the answer that these oars are not summi 
as compared with others in the same ship, but in comparison with 
those of the other vessels. Again Bayfius cites passages in which 
we are told, incidentally, that the guinqueremes breasted a rough sea 
better than the ¢rivemes ; and this could hardly have been the case if 
their oars, necessarily longer and heavier, had been manned by a 
single rower. 
Auschylus, Agam. v. 1618. 
ob tTadta gwreis veptépa zpoo7puevos 
/ 
xOrn xpatobytwy toy ext Evy@ dopds ; 
Here, of éx? Cvy@ are supposed to be of Cvyitae—and Paley renders 
“those on the upper benches.” But it is more natural to understand 
here, the officers and fighting men; who occupied a higher position, 
in both senses, than those who “sat at the oar below.” The haughty 
taunt of Aigisthus is shorn of half its sarcasm, if he merely contrasts 
himself with fellow workers, who occupied a position but one grade 
lower than his own. 
Aristophanes, Hquites, v. 545. “Alpecf! abt@ odd té “pébwor, 
napantpoat eg Evdexa xiraus x.7.2. 
Although this passage does not bear directly upon the subject 
of my remarks, I cannot help noticing, as I have not seen it else- 
where, a curious explanation which Isaac Voss gives of the phrase 
é¢’ &ydexa xdzas: he says that the speed at which a galley was going, 
was roughly calculated by the number of benches which were passed 
at a stroke ; fast travelling, in his day, was a stroke which drove the 
galley a distance of seven benches. According to his view, ‘“ with 
an eleven oar stroke,” would mean that the distance between eleven 
benches was passed at each stroke. Scheffer quotes Silius, where a 
light Liburnian galley is said to have passed more than its own 
length at each stroke. Pun. XIII. v. 240. 
“Quanta est vis agili per caerula summa Liburnae, 
Quae, pariter quoties revocatae ad pectora tonsae 
Percussere fretum, ventis fugit ocior, et se, 
Quam longa est, uno remorum praeterit ictu.” 
Of course, the actual speed would depend upon the time of the 
stroke. Voss tells us that twelve hundred stadia (about 140 miles) 
a day, was considered very fast sailing for a Liburnian, whereas the 
modern galleys went much faster—often covering a distance of 1,400 
stadia in that time. 
