168 SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



Oil the opposite side, expressly tells us that, although Polybius had 

 described the Romans and Carthaginians as using vessels with six 

 banks of oars, they had ceased to construct even triremes long before 

 his time. 



Doletus, indeed, the virulent adversary of Erasmus of Eotterdam, 

 tells us (A.D. 1537) that he saw such a quinqurreme, at Venice, 

 '^ prima adolescentia f but, unfortunately, he tells us also that the 

 rowers were placed in tiers, one above the other : an arrangement of 

 which M. Fincati himself admits the impossibility. Noav Doletus 

 may be easily disposed of: he is defending himself against a charge 

 of ignorant apj)ropriation from a work by the learned Bayfius ; and 

 it is absolutely necessary for him to briug out something original. 

 Bayfius has ended by declaring his doubts as to the possibility of 

 three or more tiers of oars : Doletus finds no difficulty in saying that 

 he has seen. No one, who has waded through the faul torrent of 

 invective in which Doletus indulges, would. take his word for any- 

 thing. Moreover, he says " p7-ima adolescentia :" let iis trust that 

 he had forgotten. After examining with some care the numerous 

 passages cited by Bayfius, Meibomius, Opellius, Scheffer and Yoss, I 

 have come to the conclusion that most of them may be satisfactorily 

 explained. Considerable latitude must, of course, be allowed in the 

 case of quotations from the poets — although there is one passage, in 

 particular (Arrian, Exped. Alexand. VI. 5), which can only be 

 accounted for on the theory that some interpolator has been at work. 

 Finally, we must not lose sight of the fact that Ancient war-ships 

 were not constructed on such rigidly scientific principles or with such 

 exact v/orkmanship, that barely p>ossihle positions and intricate com- 

 binations may be assumed for seating the men and adjusting their 

 oars : on the contrary, the doubt must be given against such ; and 

 no arrangement but the simplest and most feasible can be accepted, 

 if we are to believe that, in the First Punic war, the fleet of Duillius 

 was ready to sail within sixty days of the felling of the timber, or 

 that, in the Second, Scipio's was built in still less time. Moreover, 

 we must beai: in mind that intricate combinations require absolute 

 order; and however much this might have been observed (and 

 Xenophon tells us that it vv^as observed, adding that the trireme was 

 crowded with men aeaayiiivrj avdpmnmv) on ordinary occasions ; yet, 

 with a shower of darts falling on the men and the waves leaping up 

 against the oars, it must occasionally have b3en impossible to avoid 

 confusion, and that too at the critical moment. 



