74 - PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 
their carpenters had constructed a fleet of 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes. 
Roman sailors were drawn from the despised classes of the populace, and 
were unrespected, while the navigators and seamen of Tyre and Carthage 
were held by their people in high and deserved esteem. 
B. C. 242, although the Romans had considerably improved in nautical 
knowledge, the progress of Science among them was very tardy, and their 
losses by storms at sea were prodigious. In one gale almost every soul per- 
ished on 384 of their ships, which either foundered or were wrecked. At the 
same time the Carthagenian fleet made a good harbor and escaped damage. 
The haughty Romans thought commercial concerns beneath their dignity, 
and that extended selfishness which they called patriotism, soon rendered it 
impossible for any mercantile nation to flourish within the grasp of Rome. 
B. C. 219, superabundant wealth induced a,rage for shipbuilding, among 
Hiero, king of Syracuse, and other opulent kings of his age, vastly exceeding 
every purpose of utility in enormous bulk and extravagant ornament. As- 
sisted by Archimedes, Hiero constructed a galley of twenty tires of oars, 
sheathed with sheet lead, and carrying three masts, which no vessel had 
hitherto done. She had the embellishments of a palace with the fortifications 
and warlike stores of a castle. Athenzeus tells us, on the authority of Cal- 
lixenus and Mosepion, that Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt, built two 
huge ships. One intended for sea service was 420 feet long, 57 feet beam, 
consisting of two long flat vessels united by one deck, having two heads and 
two sterns. She carried 4,000 oars, disposed in 40 tires. Besides 4,000 
rowers, she carried 2,850 soldiers, cooks, servants, etc. The other vessel, 
intended for inland navigation, was 300 feet long and 45 feet beam. 
B. C. 170, the Sabeeans, who possessed the southern extremity of Arabia, 
acquired great opulence by commerce, and preserved their liberty unimpaired 
by conquest during many ages. Agatharchides says they were in possession 
of the carrying trade between Asia and Europe, and commanded the com- 
merce of both. They filled the dominions of Ptolemy with gold and silver and 
precious stones (probably from Ceylon), and founded several colonies in for- 
eign countries. 
B. C. 146, the Romans, determined upon the total abolition of commerce, 
destroyed the mercantile city of Corinth, and thought themselves entitled to 
the exclusive privilege of plundering the world. 
B. C. 100, Strabo repeats a story of a vessel from India, picked up adrift in 
the Red Sea, with only one man aboard, almost dead, whose shipmates died 
of famine, and Ptolemy Eurgetes, II, king of Egypt during the Macedonian 
dominion, sent Eudorus to convey him back to India, whence the expedition 
returned with aromatics and precious stones. 
B. C. 67, Pompey, with 500 Roman ships under his command, captured 400 
ships at Cilicia. 
B. C. 66, Lucullus, returning from Asia, brought as a part of his plunder, 
a large number of books. 
B. C. 57, the Veniti, said by Strabo to be a Belgie nation, settled near the 
northwestern extremity of Gaul (France), were distinguished for their nauti- 
cal science and experience. They had great numbers of vessels, excellent 
sea-boats, used leather sails, and iron chains instead of rope cables, and car- 
