APPENDIX. 
XXIll 
therefore, when we find them called TrsvrexovTOM, (fifty-oared), and 
£xaTovTO|oi (hundred-oared), we are not to suppose they were rowed with 
fifty and an hundred banks, but only with so many oars. The ship 
Argo, invented by Jason, was rowed with fifty oars, and, according to 
some writers, was the first of the long ships; all vessels, till that time, 
having been of a form much more inclining to oval. Others carry the 
invention of long ships somewhat higher, referring it to Danaus, who 
sailed from Egypt to Greece in a ship (we are told) of fifty oars ; and 
even if Jason be allowed to have been the first who introduced the 
long ships into Greece, yet he cannot be considered as the original 
contriver of them, but rather an imitator of the Egyptian or African 
model, the latter of which was constructed some time before by 
Atlas, and much adopted in that part of the Mediterranean. The 
first who used a double bank of oars were the Erythrreans, and 
Aminocles of Corinth added a third, as Herodotus, Thucydides, and 
Diodorus have reported ; although Clemens Alexandrinus attributes 
this invention to the Sidonians. A fourth bank was added by a 
Carthaginian called Aristotle ; and Nesicthon of Salamis (accord- 
ing to Pliny), or Dionysius the Sicilian (according to Diodorus), 
increased the number to five ; Xenagoras of Syracuse added a 
sixth ; and Nesigiton increased the number to ten. Alexander 
the Great and Ptolemy Soter had vessels of twelve and fifteen banks 
of oars ; and Philip, the father of Perseus, is said to have had one 
of sixteen. 
As the method of erecting one bank above another came to be 
generally known, it was easy to make further additions ; Demetrius, 
the son of Antigonus, built a ship of thirty banks ; and Ptolemy Philo- 
pator, that he might outdo his predecessors, enlarged the number still 
further to forty ; which, as all other parts were necessarily in propor- 
tion, raised the vessel to such an enormous size, that it appeared at 
a distance like a floating mountain or island, and on a nearer view 
took the form of a huge castle in the midst of the waves. This 
enormous structure contained four thousand rowers, four hundred 
sailors employed in other services, and a body of nearly three thou- 
Extreme bulk of 
some of the ves- 
sels. 
