VENETIAN GALLEY OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 



FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE 

 APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVI- 

 GATION, A.D. 1300. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



NAVIGATION DURING THE ROMAN EMPIRE — THE RISE OF VENICE AND GENOA — 

 THE CRUSADES THEIR EFFECT UPON COMMERCE WEDDING OF THE ADRI- 

 ATIC CREATION OF THE FRENCH NAVY INTRODUCTION OF EASTERN ART 



INTO EUROPE — MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES — REMOTE EFFECT OF THE CRU- 

 SADES UPON GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 



We have taken the birth of Christ as a point of departure in 

 the history of navigation, merely because of the prominence of 

 that event in the annals of the world, not on account of any 

 connection that it has with the chronicles of the sea. So far 

 from that, the first five centuries of the Christian era are an 

 absolute blank in all matters which pertain to our subject. The 

 Roman Empire rose and fell; and its rise and fall concerned the 

 Mediterranean only. Not even Julius Caesar, the greatest man 

 in Roman history, has a place in maritime records ; unless, when 

 crossing the Adriatic in a fishing-boat during a storm, his memo- 

 rable words of encouragement to the fisherman, "Fear nothing! 



you carry Caesar and his fortunes!" are sufficient to connect him 

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