Chap. 57.] 
THE INVENTORS OE YAEIOUS THINGS. 
235 
We are indebted to the Phoenicians for the first observa- 
tion of the stars in navigation ; the Copse invented the oar, 
and the Platseans gave it its broad blade.^^ Icarus was the 
person who invented sails/^ and Daedalus the mast and yards ; 
the Samians, or else Pericles, the Athenian, transports for 
horses,^^ and the Thracians, long covered vessels,^^ — before 
which time they used to fight only from the prow or the stern. 
Piseeus, the Tyrrhenian, added the beak to ships Eupala- 
mus, the anchor ; Anacharsis, that with two flukes ; Pericles, 
the Athenian, grappling-irons, and hooks like hands and 
Tiphys,^"^ the helm and rudder. Minos was the first who 
waged war by means of ships ; Hyperbius, the son of Mars, 
the first who killed an animal ; and Prometheus, the first who 
slew the ox.^^ 
bus" is mentioned by Livy, B. xxiv. c. 40, as a vessel with two benches 
of oars, "biremis;" and in B. xl. c. 4, he describes it as a small vessel 
used for towing large ships. The "cymba" has been supposed to have 
been a still smaller vessel, answering to our idea of a common boat ; the 
celes," we may suppose, was named from "^celer," being especially 
adapted for quick motion, and the "cercurus" from /cfjoicog, "a tail," from 
its long narrow form, or from its having a tail-like appendage attached 
to it.— B. 
^1 Hardouin conjectures, that the cities of Copse and Plateae derived their 
names, respectively, from the inventions here ascribed to them, /cwtt?) and 
TrXarr}. — B. 
^- Pausanias ascribes this invention to Daedalus ; Diodorus, B. v. c. 1, to 
^olus, who gave his name to the ^olian islands. — B. 
^'^ ^'Hippagus." — B. 
^ " Tecta longa ;" Caesar, Bell. Civ. B. i. c. 56, says that the Massilians 
fitted out long ships, of which eleven were " tectae." — B. 
Ships of war had their prows armed with brazen beaks, to which 
sharp spears were attached ; these were used in their naval engagements 
as instruments of attack, and, when the vessels were captured, were con- 
sidered the trophies of victory. The tribunal, in the Roman Forum, from 
which the orators harangued the people, obtained its name of Rostra," 
from its being ornamented with the beaks of captured ships. — B. 
The "harpago" and the " manus ferrea" are mentioned by Caesar, 
Bell. Civ. B. i. c. 57, and by Livy, B. xxx. c. 10 ; Quintus Curtius also 
speaks of them, but considers them as only different names for the same 
instrument, B. iv. c. 2, 12. — B. 
57 Tiphys was the pilot of the vessel of the Argonauts \ he died before 
the expedition reached Colchis. — B. 
^8 Hardouin remarks upon this passage, that Pliny probably means to 
speak of the persons who first killed oxen or other animals for what may 
be styled profane purposes ; as they had long before this been employed for 
sacrifice. — B. 
