introduced;
Themistocles induced the Athenians to build a fleet of two hundred sail,
and to pass a decree that every year twenty new triremes should be
built. The Greeks even at that period, however, seldom ventured out
into the open sea, steering in the daytime by headlands or islands, and
at night by the rising and setting of different stars.

The Greeks possessed ships of war and merchant-vessels. That a
war-galley was of large size may be inferred from the fact that she
carried two hundred seamen, besides on some occasions thirty Epibatoe--
literally, marines, trained to fight at sea. These war-vessels moved
with wonderful rapidity, darting here and there with the speed of a
modern steam-vessel. The ordinary war-ships were triremes, or had three
banks of oars. The merchant-vessels or transports were much more bulky,
had round bottoms, and although rowers were employed on board, yet they
were propelled chiefly by their sails. After the time of Alexander,
vessels with four, five, and even more ranks of rowers became general,
and ships are described with twelve and even thirty ranks of rowers and
upwards--but they were found of no practical use, as the crew on the
upper benches were unable to throw sufficient power into the immensely
long oars which it was necessary to employ.

Fully B.C. 500, the Carthaginians invented the quadremes, and about B.C.
400, Dionysius, first tyrant of Syracuse, whose ambition was to create a
powerful navy, built numerous vessels of the same description, unused
till that time by the Greeks. The rowers in these ships, with numerous
banks of oars, could not have sat directly one above another, as some
suppose; but the feet of those on the upper tier must have rested on the
bench or thwart on which those immediately below them sat. Thus the
tiers of oars were probably not more than two feet, if so much, one
above another; and supposing the lowest tier was two feet above the
water, the highest in the quadremes could not have been more than ten
feet, and even then the length of the oar of the upper tier must have
been very great, and it must have required considerable exertion on the
part of the rower to move it. The most interesting part, however, of an
ancient ship to us at the present day was the beak or rostra. At first
these beaks were placed only above water, and were formed in the shape
of a short thick-bladed sword, with sharp points, generally three, one
above another, and i