Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

NAVIS NAVIS. 78.5
fa eet of 200 sails, he also carried a decree, that sisting of real men-of-war, which were quick-sail.
every year twenty new Triremnes should be built ing vessels (eaXeCa7), and the other of transports
from the produce of the mines of Laurium. (Po- either for soldiers (TvpaetrcrT-oes or dlrArTaywyoi)
lyaen. i. 30; Plut. Themist. 4; comp. Bickh, or for horses (irsr7ryot, r7raywoyol). Ships of this
Pubi. Econz. p. 249, 2d edit.) After the time of class were more heavy and awkward, and were
Themistocles as many as twenty Triremes must therefore not used in battle except in cases of nehave been built every year both in times of war cessity. (Thucyd. i. 116.) It seems to have been
and of peace, as the average number of Triremes a common practice to use as transports for soldiers
which was always ready amounted to between and horses such Triremes as had become useless
three and four hundred. Such an annual addition as men-of-war. The ordinary size of a war galley
was the more necessary, as the vessels were of a may be inferred from the fact that the average
light structure and did not last long. The whole number of men engaged in it, including the crew
superintendence of the building of new Triremes and marines, was two hundred, to whom on some
was in the hands of the senate of the Five Hun- occasions as much as thirty epibatae were added.
dred (Demosth. c. Arcdrot. p. 598), but the actual (Herod. viii. 17, vii. 184; comp. EPIBATAE and
business was entrusted to a committee called the B3ckh, Publ. Econ. p. 278, &c.) The rapidity
T~p1jpo7rorol, one of whom acted as their treasurer, with which these war galleys sailed may be
uand had in his keeping the money set apart for the gathered from various statements in ancient writers,
Purpose. In the time of Demosthenes a treasurer and appealrs to have been so great, that even we
of the'rpnrporoioi ran away with the money, which cannot help looking upon it without astonishment,
amounted to two talents and a half. During the when we find that the quickness of an ancient
period after Alexander tie Great the Attic navy trireme nearly equalled that of a modern steanlappears to have become considerably diminished, boat. Among the war-ships of the Athenians their
as in 307. c. -Demetrius Poliorcetes promised the sacred state-vessels were always included (PAAtheIlians timber for 100 new Triremes. (Diod. i;ALUJS; comp. Biickh, Urkundes iiber d. Seesvesen
xx. 46; Plut. Denietr. 10.) After this time the des Att. Staats, p. 76, &c.); but smaller vessels,
1-thodians became the greatest maritime power in! such as the w7'rwE dsropor or'rpaKdCTopoi, are
Greece. The navy of Sparta was never of great never included when the sum of men-of-war is
importance. mentioned, and their use for military purposes apNavigation remained for the most part what it pears gradually to have ceased.
had been before: the Greeks seldom ventured out. Vessels with more than three ranks of rowers on
into the open sea, and it was generally considered each side were not constructed in Greece till about
necessary to remain in sight of the coast or of some the year 400 B. C., when Dionysius I., tyrant of'
island, which also served as guides in daytime: in Syracuse, who bestowed great care upon his navy,
the night the position, rising and setting of the built the first Quadriremes (rerp'peLs), with which
different stars answered the same purpose. Iu he had probably become acquainted through the
winter navigation generally ceased altogether. In Carthaginians, since the.invention of these vessels
cases where it would have been necessary to coast is ascribed to them. (Pin. II. N. vii. 57; Diodor..
around a considerable extent of country, which was xiv. 41, 42.) Up to this time no Quinquleremes
connected with the main land by a narrow neck, (Orevr'pmes) had been built, and the invention of
the ships were sometimes drawn across the neck of them is likewise ascribed to the reign of Dionysins.
land from one sea to the other, by machines called Mlnesigeiton (ap. Plin. 1. c.) ascribes the invention;AKom. This was done most frequently across the of Quinqueremes to the Salaminians, and if this
isthmus of Corinth. (Herod. vii. 24; Thucyd. viii. statement is correct, Dionysius had his Quinque1, iii. 15, with the Schol.; Strab. viii. p. 380; remes probably built by a Salaminian ship-builder.
Polyb. iv. 19, v. 101.) In the reign of Dionysi-s II. Hexeres (4i71jps).
Now as regards the various kinds of ships used are also mentioned, the invention of which was
by the Greeks, we might divide them with Pliny ascribed to the Syracusans. (Aelian, V. II. vi. 12,
according to the number of ranks of rowers em- with the note of Perizonius; Plin. i. c.) After the
ployed in them, into Moneres, Biremes, Triremes, time of Alexander the Great the use of vessels
Quadriremes, Quinqueremes, &c., up to the enor- with four, five, and more ranks of rowers became
mous ship with forty ranks of rowers, built by very general, and'it is well known from Polybius
Ptolemaeus Philopator.(Plin. I. c.; Athen. v. (i. 63, &c.)j that the first Punic war was chiefly
p. 203, &c.) But all these appear to have been carried on with Quinqueremes. Ships with twelve,
constructed on the same principle, and it is more thirty, or even forty ranks of rowers (Plin.'. c.;
convenient to divide them into ships of wear and Athen. v. p. 204, &c.), such as they were built by
ships of burden (4popTKc&, qopOPT7ol, 6O Mcis, 7rAose, Alexander and the Ptolemies, appear to have been
r-'poyyrA6Xa,navesoneras-iae, naves tectcariae). Ships mere curiosities, and did not come into common
of the latter kind were not calculated for quick use. The Athenians at first did not adopt vessels
niovement or rapid sailing, but to carry the greatest larger than Triremes,probably because they thought
possible quantity of goods. Hence their structure that with rapidity and skill they could do more
was bulky, their bottom round, and although they than with large and unwieldy ships. In the year
were not without rowers, yet the chief means by B.c. 356 they continued to use nothing but Triwhich they were propelled were their sails. remes; but in 330 a. c. the republic had already
The most common ships of war in the earlier a number of Quadriremes, which vas afterwards
tintes were the pentecontori (7rreV,'lK'Tvopo), but increased. The first Quinqueremes at Athens are
afterwards they were chiefly Triremes, and the latter mentioned in a document (in Bickh's Urkunden,
are frequently designated only by the iame ryes, N. xiv. litt. K.) belonging to the year B. C. 325.
while all the others are called by the name indi- Herodotus (vi. 87), according to the common
eating their peculiar character. Triremes however reading, calls the theoris, which in 01. 72 the
were again divided into two classes: the one con- Aeginetans took from the Athenians, a 7eE7TpW:s
3;