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NAVIS.

of several thinner ones. (Aristoph. Pax, 36 ; Varro, de Re Rust. i. 135 ; Bockh, pp. 161—166.) 7. The anchor (o/y/ctfpa, ancora.) We have al­ready remarked that in the Homeric age, anchors were not known, and large stones (evval, sleepers) used in their stead. (Horn. 11. i. 436, xiv. 77, Od. ix. 137, xv. 498.) According to Pliny (H. N. 57), the anchor was first invented by Eupalamus and afterwards improved by Anacharsis. Afterwards, when anchors were used, they were generally made of iron, and their form, as may be seen from the annexed figure, taken from a coin, resembled that of a modern anchor. (Comp. Virg. Aen. i. 169,

vi. 3.) Such an anchor was often termed lidens, SiTrAr), a/ji(piSoXos or a/^icrro/ios, because it had two teeth or flukes ; but sometimes it had only one, and was then called erepoo-r^os. The tech­nical expressions in the use of the anchor are: ancoram solvere, ayavpav Xa^v^ to l°ose tne anchor ; ancoram jacere, ayicvpav /3aAAejz/ or fiiir-z/, to cast anchor ; and ancoram tollere, ayicvpav or avaiptffOcu, to weigh anchor, whence by itself means " to set sail," ayitvpav being understood. The following figure, taken from a marble at Rome, shows the cable (funis\ passing through a hole in the prow (oculus). Each

ship of course had several anchors ; the one in which St. Paul sailed had four (Acts, xxvii. 29), and others had eight. (Athen. v. 43.) The last or most powerful anchor, •" the last hope," was called feprf, sacra, and persons trying their last hope were said sacram solvere. To indicate where the anchor lay, a bundle of cork floated over it on the surface of the waters, (Paus. viii. 12 ; Plin. H. N.

xvi. 8.)

The preceding account of the different parts of the ship will be rendered still clearer ^ by the drawing on the following page, in which it is at­tempted to give a restoration of an ancient ship. _

The Romans in the earlier period of their his­tory never conceived the idea of increasing their power by the formation of a fleet. The time when

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they first appear to have become aware of the importance of a fleet, was during the second Samnite war, in the year b. c. 311. Livy (ix. 30), where he mentions this event, says: duumviri navales classis ornandae reficiendaeque causa were then for the first time appointed by the people. This expression suggests that a fleet had been in exist­ence before, and that the duumviri navales had been previously appointed by some other power. [DuuM-virl] But Niebuhr (Hist, of Rome, iii. p. 282) thinks that the expression of Livy only means,-, that at this time the Romans resolved to build their first fleet. The idea of founding a navy was probably connected with the establishment of a colony in the Pontian islands, as the Romans at this time must have felt that they ought not to be defenceless at sea. The ships which the Romans now built were undoubtedly Triremes, which were then very common among the Greeks of Itaty, and most of them were perhaps furnished by the Italian towns subject to Rome. This fleet, however in­significant it may have been, continued to be kept up until the time when Rome became a real mari­time power. This was the time of the first Punic war. That their naval power until then was of no importance, is clear from Polybius (i. 20), who speaks as if the Romans had been totally un­acquainted with the sea up to that time. In the year b. c. 260, when the Romans saw that without a navy they could not carry on the war against Carthage with any advantage, the senate ordained that a fleet should be built. Triremes would now have been of no avail against the high-bulwarked vessels (Quinqueremes) of the Carthaginians. But the Romans would have been unable to build others had not fortunately a Carthaginian Quinquereme been wrecked on the coast of Bruttium, and fallen into their hands. This wreck the Romans took as their model, and after it built 120 (Polyb. I. c.), or according to others (Oros. iv. 7) 130 ships. Ac­cording to Polybius one hundred of them were Trej/TTjpets, and the remaining twenty rpj^peiy, or, as Niebuhr proposes to read, rerp-fjpeis. This large fleet was completed within sixty days after the trees had been cut down. (Plin. PL N. xvi. 74.) The ships, built of green timber in this hur­ried way, were very clumsily made, and not likely to last for any time ; and the Romans themselves, for want of practice in naval affairs, proved very unsuccessful in their first maritime undertaking, for seventeen ships were taken and destroyed by the Carthaginians off Messina. (Polyb. i. 21 ; Polyaen. Strat.vi. 16 ; Oros. iv. 7.) C. Duilius, who perceived the disadvantage with which his countrymen had to struggle at sea, devised a plan which enabled them to change a sea fight, as it were, into a fight on land. The machine, by which this was effected, was afterwards called corvus, and is described by Polybius (i. 22 ; comp. Nie­buhr, iii. p. 678, &c. ; corvus). From this time forward the Romans continued to keep up a power­ful navy. Towards the end of the Republic they also increased the size of their ships, and built war vessels of from six to ten ordines of rowers. (Flo-ms, iv. 11 ; Virg. Aen. viii. 691.) The construc­tion of their ships, however, scarcely differed from that of Greek vessels ; the only great difference was that the Roman galleys were provided with a greater variety of destructive engines of war than those of the Greeks. They even erected turres and tabulata upon the decks of their great men-of-

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