i8o A. D. 73. 



The Greeks of Egypt were now by far the beft navigators of the 

 Roman empire, having apparently fucceeded to the nautical knowlege, 

 as well as to the commerce, of the Phcenicians : and they poflelFed the 

 important advantages, which the others fcarcely ever had, of a free na- 

 vigation in the Oriental feas as well as in the Mediterranean, and of 

 having a conflant, great, and ready, market for their merchandize in 

 the wealthy capital of the Roman world. Their induftry and ingenuity, 

 thus cheriflied and encouraged, were further ftimulated by the example 

 of the Arabians, as far as we know, the oldell, and apparently the beft, 

 navigators upon the Indian ocean, or Erythraean fea, with whom they had 

 much intercourfe. And we may prefume, that they had acquired a con- 

 fiderable degree of proficiency in the theory and pradice of navigation 

 by the aflbciation of great numbers of Phoenician feamen, who, on the 

 decline of trade in their own ports, would undoubtedly refort to Alex- 

 andria : for feamen are a clafs of people, who feel lefs inconvenience in 

 expatriating themfelves than thoie of any other profeflion ; and they 

 muft ever follow the footfteps of commerce, with which they are fo 

 clofely and fo infeparably conneded. As to the natives of the old 

 Egyptian race, they do not appear in any age to have had the fmalleft 

 concern in maritime affairs or a6tive foreign commerce. 



The antient feamen trufted chiefly to their oars for making way, nei- 

 ther the hulls of their veflels nor their fails being calculated for going 

 to windward : and thence, as the motion of the veflel through the water 

 was pretty uniform, we find the diftances of places generally noted by 

 fo many days' courfes, a kind of menfuration, which, however prepofter- 

 ous it would be in modern times, was then tolerably accurate, efpecial- 

 ly when applied to paflages which had been often repeated. When the 

 wind was fair, they hoifted their fails, which appear from medals and 

 fculptures, the only kinds of information we poifefs, to have been very 

 imall, and went before it. And they alfo knew how to trim their fails 

 by ropes anfwering apparently to the Iheets and tacks, and perhaps alfo 

 to the braces, in modern veflels, fo as to avail themfelves of any wind, 

 which was not before the beam, as we find antient authors mention vef- 

 fels going oppofite courfes with the fame wind when moderate*, or, in 

 modern fea language, failing with the wind upon the beam f . In 

 the runs between the Red fea and the coaft of India they never had the 



* ' The wind Argeftes (about we(l-nortli-\ve(l) oars; and alfo with v. 289, where the fail is 



*• is gcntlf, and equally coiivcni<^nt for goin^ and fqiiared by the tacks or flitcts, (' Una onincs fe- 



' returning.' [AVrtcr. ^irjl. vat. L. v, c. 16.] ' cere pedeni' wliich word Servius explains as 



+ Compare Pliny, L. ii, c. 47, where ' prolalis meaning the rope, by whieh the fail is llretched 



' (jcdibus' ftcms to mean />au/ing fofzvarJ t/je tacit, out) and one of the /ifly yard-arms ir- hauled in^ 



with Virgil, JEnrid. I,, v, v. 16, where the wind while the ollu-r is eafed off, which could only be 



being northerly when the Trojans arc bound from done by braces ; the oars are laid in ; the rowers 



Carthage to I.aly, but firll to make Sicily, the gone to deep on their benches ; and the fleet if^ 



tliU. are trimmed to the wind, aud helped by the gliding through the water before a pleafanthrcc/''. 



