Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

NAVIS.

2G1

NAVIS.

vessels called o-Tpo-yyuAai, with large round or
rather flat hottoms, had been used exclu-
sively by all the Ionians in Asia. At this
period most Greeks seem to have adopted the
long ships with only one rank of rowers on
each side (Moneris). Their name varied ac-
cordingly as they had fifty (jv£vn)K6vTopoi),
or thirty (rptaKoi/ropot), or even a smaller
number of rowers. A ship of war of this
class is represented in the preceding woodcut.
The following cut contains a beautiful frag-
ment of a Biremis with a complete deck. An-
other specimen of a small Biremis is given
further on.—The first Greek people whom
we know to have acquired a navy of import-
ance were the Corinthians, Samians, and
Phocaeans. About the time of Cyrus and
Cambyses the Corinthian Triremes were ge-
nerally adopted by the Sicilian tyrants and

Biremis. ("Winckelmann, pi. 207.)

deck. Ships which had a complete deck were
called xardtjipaKTOL, and the deck itself <o.-6.-
arptuixa. At the time when Themistocles in-
duced the Athenians to build a fleet of 200
sail he also carried a decree, that every year
twenty new Triremes should be built from the
produce of the mines of Laurium. After the
time of Themistocles as many as twenty Tri-
remes must have been built every year both in
times of war and of peace, as the average
number of Triremes which was always ready
amounted to between three and four hun-
dred. Such an annual addition was the
more necessary, as the vessels were of a light
structure and did not last long. The whole
superintendence of the building of new Tri-
remes was in the hands of the senate of the
Five Hundred, but the actual business was en-
trusted to a committee called the TptTjpo7roi.ot,
one of whom acted as their treasurer, and
had in his keeping the money set apart for
the purpose. Under the Macedonian supre-
macy the llhodians became the greatest ma-
ritime power in Greece. The navy of Sparta

by the Corcyraeans, who soon acquired the
most powerful navies among the Greeks. In
other parts of Greece and even at Athens
and in Aegina the most common vessels
about this time were long ships with only
one rank of rowers on each side. Athens,
although the foundation of its maritime
power had been laid by Solon [Naucraria],
did not obtain a fleet of any importance until
the time of Themistocles, who persuaded the
Athenians to build 200 Triremes for the purpose
of carrying on the war against Aegina. But
even then ships were not provided with com-
plete decks (KaTaarpoip-aTa) covering the
whole of the vessel. Ships with only a
partial deck or with no deck at all, were
called a0paKToi i'tjes, and in Latin navel aper-
tae. Even at the time of the Persian war,
the Athenian ships were without a complete

Nuvis Aperte. (Coin of Corey™.)

was never of great importance. Navigation
remained for the most part what it had been
before; the Greeks seldom ventured out into
the open sea, and it was generally considered
necessary to remain in sight of the coast or
of some island, which also served as guides
in daytime : in the night the position, rising
and setting of the different stars answered
the same purpose. In winter navigation
generally ceased altogether. In cases where
it would have been necessary to coast around
a considerable extent of country, which was
connected with the main land by a narrow
neck, the ships were sometimes drawn across
the neck of land from one sea to the other,
by machines called oAxot. This was done
most frequently across the isthmus of Co-
rinth.—The various kinds of ships used by
the Greeks might be divided, according to
the number of ranks of rowers employed in
them, into Moneres, Biremes, Triremes, Qua-
driremes, Quinqueremes, &c, up to the enor -
mous ship with forty ranks of rowers, built
by Ptolemaeus Philopator. But all these ap-