CHARACTERS. 



765 



the best possible use of their arms 

 I offensive and defensive. He im- 

 mediately saw that they ought to 

 be placed, not in deep and dense 

 bodies, as had been supposed, 

 where it would be impossible for 

 thera to attain the enemy, but in 

 I shallow lines of two, or, at most, 

 three ranks in depth. He disco- 

 vered also, that the men ought to 

 stand, not in files, or one directly 

 behind another, but the men of 

 the second rank opposite to, and 

 covering, the intervals between the 

 men in the front rank ; and those 

 of the third rank, opposite to the 

 intervals between the men in the 

 second rank. In other words, he 

 found that the legionary soldiers 

 were placed in a quincunx order, 

 where every two men in the front 

 and third ranks, forming a paral- 

 lelogram in length, from front to 

 rear, the man of the second rank 

 occupied its center, where, removed 

 from the men before and behind 

 him, at the greatest possible dis- 

 tance, or half the diagonal of the 

 parallelogram, he had the greatest 

 possible room in the same actuaJ 

 space, and from which he could, 

 without interruption, emploj' his 

 arms freely before, behind, or on 

 either side, as necessity might re- 

 quire. 



This theory once discovered, 

 and duly unfolded, all seeming con- 

 tradictions in ancient writers were 

 reconciled, all perplexities were 

 unravelled, and all difficulties were 

 removed. 



By a similar train of reasoning, 

 the general had the good fortune to 

 solve the long-contested questionre- 

 specting the manner of distributing 

 the oars and the rowers, in the war- 

 gallies of the ancients. It is evi- 

 dent from history, that the an- 



cients had vessels of different de- 

 nominations, called by the Romans, 

 triremes, quadriremes, quinque- 

 remex, &c. and by the Greeks, 

 trieres, tetreres, penteres, &c. 

 terms expressive (if the word may 

 be used) of three, four, five row- 

 ings, &c. It is also evident, that 

 by these rowings, were meant dis- 

 tinct rows of oars, from stem to 

 stern, of the vessel, raised in order, 

 the one above the other, from the 

 water upwards. Commentators 

 being in general still more igno- 

 rant, if possible, of naval than of 

 military affairs, had propounded 

 the most absurd notions concern- 

 ing the nature of these ancient 

 ships. The notion, however, the 

 most generally received was, that 

 the ship's sides being perpendicu- 

 lar, or nearly so, to the surface of 

 the water, the oars were likewise 

 placed vertically, the one imme- 

 diately over the other below it. 

 Other systems were also broached, 

 tending, in some measure, to ob- 

 viate the objections made to the 

 former ; but still the best were 

 liable to insurmountable difficul- 

 ties, arising from the placing of the 

 rowers, the height of the ship's 

 side, and particularly from the 

 great length and weight of the oars, 

 by which those in the upper rows, 

 or tiers, must have become utterly 

 unmanageable. 



From a consideration of these 

 objections, it was concluded by 

 many inquirers on the subject, that 

 the number of rowings related not 

 to the rows of oars, but to the 

 men employed to manage one oar, 

 as is done on board the gallies ia 

 the Mediterranean : so that a tri- 

 reme, a quinquereme, &c, meant a 

 vessel in which one oar was work- 

 ed by three men, five men, &c. 



That 



