A. D. 73- i^3 



niaf>s. belonging to Antigonus, which was remarkable on that account ; 

 a pr^^y pfood evidence that fuch vefTcls were uncommon. Even the 

 largeli vefiels feem to have had but one maft, and that fcarcely fo lofty 

 as the lower mafts of modern fhips, with the addition of poles fet up at 

 the head and ftern to carry fmall fails. Moft ot the mafts were raifed 

 and lowered occafionally, like thofe of modern fmall craft, which go 

 UT^der bridges. U'^rg. JEn. L. v, v. 287. — Frontiiii Stratag. L. ii, c. 5.] 

 But the Alexandrian fliips appear to have had proper (landing mafts. 



Pliny fays [L. xix, procevi.'\ that in addition to the larger fails, of 

 which each veflel appears to have carried but one, and that, according 

 to our modern ideas of fails, a very fmall one, they had lately introduc- 

 ed othei"s above them, befides fails in the prow and others in the ftem * ; 

 * and by fo many ways did they challenge death.' The fails were made 

 of flax, and of a fabric much too flight for ftanding a gale of wind, if 

 we may judge from the fame names being applied to them, which ex- 

 prefled the kind of linen ufed for clothing. But we know, that the 

 large fliips of Alexandria (to be defcribed prefently) and alfo thofe of 

 the Veneti in Gaul (already defcribed, p. 115) carried fails made of 

 leather f . 



The fails, beftdes their principal ufe in impelling the vefl!el by the 

 force of the wind, ferved alfo for fignals.and for diftinguifliingtheveflels 

 of a fleet, by means of the colours wherewith they were ftained. The 

 ftory of the fatal miftake in the colour of Thefeus's fail is known to every 

 fchool-boy. Various colours of the fails for diftinguifliing the divifions 

 of the fleet feem to have been introduced by Alexander the Great : and 

 we find Cleopatra's royal galley diftinguiflied by a purple fail in the fam- 

 ous battle of Allium. In the night time the veflels were dilHnguifli- 

 ed by lights : Scipio's own galley carried three lights, each tranfport, 



two, and every warlike veflel in his fleet, one. {Plm. Hi/}. L. xix, c. i 



Flori Hifi. L. iv, c. 11 Livii H'ljl. L. xxix, c. 25 — and fee Pclyani Stratag. 



L. \i, c. II.] We learn from Procopius, that the fame diftindions by 

 fails and lights were ufed in the fleet of Belifarius in the fixth century, 

 and they appear to have continued through the middle ages, till the dif- 

 tinguifliing colour was removed from the fails to the flags fixed more 

 confpicuoufly on the heads of the mafts, or the ftern. 



The gubernactilaX, or fteering paddles, of which each veflel carried 

 two §, had palms, or blades, much broader than thofe of the oars ; and 



* There is an incredible ftory of a Roman (hip prcfentations, that they bore no refemblance to 



intended to caMyJifty fails, already noticed, p. 83 modern rudders. 



note. jj A learned commentator recommends the ufe 



f Pliny has not a word of any kind of cloth be- of two rudders on the quarters of modern (hips — 



Jug made of hemp, which, he only fays, [Z,. xix, becaufe the ftrcam of water paffing the (hip mufl 



€. 9] is ufeful for making cordage ; though the be ftrongcr there than at the llern-poft.— Did he 



Tliracians, as we learn from Herodotus, had made fuppofc a (hip formed like a chert ? The ve(rels of 



cloth of hemp many ages before his time. his country, to-be-fuie, come nearer to that form 



X Thefe are ufually tranflated rudders. But we than thofe of any other in Eiiope. 

 Biay be fatisfi«d from coins and other antient re- 



