78 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



were equally fond of exhibiting them. The first spectacle of 

 this kind, or naumachia, was given by Julius Caesar upon a 

 lake dug for the purpose in the Campus Martius. Augustus 

 caused a lake or "stagnum" to be made for a similar use. 

 This remained as the permanent scene of such exhibitions. The 

 combatants in these fights were usually captives or criminals 

 condemned to death, who fought as in gladiatorial combats, 

 until one side was exterminated or spared by imperial clemency. 

 In a naumachia given by Nero, there were sea-monsters 

 swimming about in the artificial lake. Claudius ordered a naval 

 battle upon Lake Fucinus, in which one hundred ships and nine- 

 teen thousand combatants were engaged. Troops of nereids were 

 seen swimming about, and the signal for attack was given by a 

 silver Triton, who was made, by means of machinery, to blow the 

 alarum upon a trumpet. 



We now proceed to narrate, in chronological order, the very 

 few voyages of discovery made previous to the Christian era. 

 These were those of Hanno to Sierra Leone, of Sataspes to 

 Sahara, of Nearchus from the Indus to the Tigris, of Pytheas 

 from Massilia to Shetland, and of Eudoxus from Cadiz to the 

 Equator. 



THE COMMON PENGUIN. 



