Roman antiquities: or, An account of the manners and customs of the Romans; . eir rows orranks of oars.** Those which had two rows or tiers were calledbiremes ; three, triremes ; four, quadrirernes ; five, quinquerentesvel penteres. The Romans scarcely had any ships of more than five banksof oars; and therefore those of six or seven banks are calledby a Greek name, hexercs, hepteres, and above that by a cir-cumlocution, naves, octo, novem., decern ordinum, vel versuum.^Thus, Livy calls a ship of sixteen rows ^ navis ingentis magni-tiidinis, quam sexdecim versus remorum agehant^ a galley of vas
Roman antiquities: or, An account of the manners and customs of the Romans; . eir rows orranks of oars.** Those which had two rows or tiers were calledbiremes ; three, triremes ; four, quadrirernes ; five, quinquerentesvel penteres. The Romans scarcely had any ships of more than five banksof oars; and therefore those of six or seven banks are calledby a Greek name, hexercs, hepteres, and above that by a cir-cumlocution, naves, octo, novem., decern ordinum, vel versuum.^Thus, Livy calls a ship of sixteen rows ^ navis ingentis magni-tiidinis, quam sexdecim versus remorum agehant^ a galley of vastsize, which was moved by sixteen tiers of oars. This enormousship, how#ver, sailed up the Tiber to Rome.^ The ships ofAntony (which Florus says resembled floating castles andtowns; Virgil, floating islands or mountains,) had only fromsix to nine banks of oars. Dio says from four to ten rows.^^ There are various opinions about the luanner in which therowers sat. That most generally received is, that they wereplaced above one another in different stages or benches ^^ on one. 1 Liv. viii. 14. 2 7. Isid. xix, 1. xii. 15, 3 graviored. 4 remulco tractae. 11, xvi. 4. vel dicrote, 5 Liv. xxxii. 16. Kirt. B. Alex. 47. 6 ab ordinibus remo- 8 Liv. xxxvii. 23. Flor,rum. , 7 dierota, Cic, Att. v. 9 iicKaiiiKi]fr,s, Polyb. 10 Liv. xlv. 11 1. i!3. 33. Flor. 4. Virg. .i;n. 12 ill transtiis veljuj;i9« NAVAL AFFAIRS. 339 side of the ship, not in a perpendicular line, but in the form ofa quincunx. The oars of the loAvest bench Avere short, andthose of the other benches increased in length, in proportion totheir height above the water. This opinion is confirmed byseveral passages in the classics,^ and by the representationswhich remain of ancient galleys, particularly that on Trajanspillar at Rome. It is, however, attended with difficulties noteasily reconciled. There Avere three different classes of rowers, whom thelireeks called thrani
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