DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0528
op the military affairs of greece.
band, called, from its continual motion, eifttfsiuv, turning round with the
wind.
The names of the ropes required to the use of the above-mentioned
parts, were these that follow, as enumerated by Scheffer :
EtfiVovoi were the ropes called in Latin anquince, wherewith the sail-
yards were bound to the mainmast (1) : others will have them to be the
same with the Latin rudentes, which were those that governed the sail-
yards, so as one part of the sails might be hoisted, the other lowered (2),
according to the pleasure of the pilot. Others will have the cords where-
with the sail-yards were tied to the mast, to be termed x«Xwv, ceru-
chus, anchonis, andrudens; that whereby they were contracted or dilat-
ed, utfs'ga (3), in Latin, o/n/era(4).
TLoSsg, in Latin, pedes, were cords at the corners of the sails (5),
whereby there were managed as occasion required. Tlgoir65es were
small cords below the pedes, which were so contrived as to be loosed
and contracted by them : the use of both these wa9 in taking the winds,
for by them the sails were contracted, dilated, or changed from one side
to another, as there was occasion.
Metfs^i'ai were those whereby the mast was erected or let down (6) ;
others will have them to belong to the sails.
IT^oTovoi were cords, which passing through a pully at the top of the mast,
were tied on one side to the prow, on the other to the stern, to keep the
mast fixed and immoveable.
The materials of which these and other cords were composed, were
at first seldom any thing but leathern thongs; afterwards they used hemp,
flax, broom, palm-leaves, philyry, the bark of trees, as the cherry, teil-
tree, vine, maple, carpine, &c.
CHAP. XVII.
of the instruments of war in ships. t
What I have hitherto delivered concerning the parts and construction
of ships has been spoken in general, without respect to any particular
sort of them ; it remains, therefore, that, in the next place, I give you a
brief account of what was farther necessary to equip a man of war.
''Efx^oXov, rostrum, was a beak of wood, fortified with brass, whence it is
called ^aXxwfta vswv in Diodorus (7), and ships have sometimes the epithet
of 5c«eXxsfA§oXoi: one or more of these was always fastened to the prow,
to annoy the enemy's ships, and the whole prow was sometimes covered
with brass, to guard it from rocks and assaults. The person that first
used these beaks is said to have been one Pisaeus, an Italian (8) ; for it
will not be allowed that the primitive Greeks had any knowledge of them,
since no such thing is mentioned in Homer, which could scarce have hap-
pened, had they been invented at the time of the Trojan war: yet
(1) Suidas. (2) Phavor. Apollonii Schol. Vide meum. etMeursii Com
(3) Suidas. (4)Isidor. ment. in Lycoph. Cassandr. v. 105.
<5)Aristoph. Schol. Equit. act. i. seen. i. (6) Apollonii Schol. (7)Lib. xx.
(8) Plin. lib. vii. cap. 56.
band, called, from its continual motion, eifttfsiuv, turning round with the
wind.
The names of the ropes required to the use of the above-mentioned
parts, were these that follow, as enumerated by Scheffer :
EtfiVovoi were the ropes called in Latin anquince, wherewith the sail-
yards were bound to the mainmast (1) : others will have them to be the
same with the Latin rudentes, which were those that governed the sail-
yards, so as one part of the sails might be hoisted, the other lowered (2),
according to the pleasure of the pilot. Others will have the cords where-
with the sail-yards were tied to the mast, to be termed x«Xwv, ceru-
chus, anchonis, andrudens; that whereby they were contracted or dilat-
ed, utfs'ga (3), in Latin, o/n/era(4).
TLoSsg, in Latin, pedes, were cords at the corners of the sails (5),
whereby there were managed as occasion required. Tlgoir65es were
small cords below the pedes, which were so contrived as to be loosed
and contracted by them : the use of both these wa9 in taking the winds,
for by them the sails were contracted, dilated, or changed from one side
to another, as there was occasion.
Metfs^i'ai were those whereby the mast was erected or let down (6) ;
others will have them to belong to the sails.
IT^oTovoi were cords, which passing through a pully at the top of the mast,
were tied on one side to the prow, on the other to the stern, to keep the
mast fixed and immoveable.
The materials of which these and other cords were composed, were
at first seldom any thing but leathern thongs; afterwards they used hemp,
flax, broom, palm-leaves, philyry, the bark of trees, as the cherry, teil-
tree, vine, maple, carpine, &c.
CHAP. XVII.
of the instruments of war in ships. t
What I have hitherto delivered concerning the parts and construction
of ships has been spoken in general, without respect to any particular
sort of them ; it remains, therefore, that, in the next place, I give you a
brief account of what was farther necessary to equip a man of war.
''Efx^oXov, rostrum, was a beak of wood, fortified with brass, whence it is
called ^aXxwfta vswv in Diodorus (7), and ships have sometimes the epithet
of 5c«eXxsfA§oXoi: one or more of these was always fastened to the prow,
to annoy the enemy's ships, and the whole prow was sometimes covered
with brass, to guard it from rocks and assaults. The person that first
used these beaks is said to have been one Pisaeus, an Italian (8) ; for it
will not be allowed that the primitive Greeks had any knowledge of them,
since no such thing is mentioned in Homer, which could scarce have hap-
pened, had they been invented at the time of the Trojan war: yet
(1) Suidas. (2) Phavor. Apollonii Schol. Vide meum. etMeursii Com
(3) Suidas. (4)Isidor. ment. in Lycoph. Cassandr. v. 105.
<5)Aristoph. Schol. Equit. act. i. seen. i. (6) Apollonii Schol. (7)Lib. xx.
(8) Plin. lib. vii. cap. 56.