Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: August 11, 2024
Using, it is said, for a model, a Carthaginian vessel wrecked on the shore of Italy, they constructed quinqueremes, vessels with five banks of oars, furnished with bridges to drop on the decks of the hostile ships, thus giving to a sea-fight a resemblance to a combat on land.
In modern times, the magnitude and efficiency of a ship is estimated by the number of guns she will carry; then, it was the number of banks of oars. Fifty of Hasdrubal's ships were quinqueremes, as they were called, that is, they had five banks of oars. The Romans, on the other hand, did not neglect their own preparations.
Quinctius, in order that he might deprive Philip of that stronghold, along with the rest, consented to come; accordingly, sending a message to Attalus, to leave Aegina, and meet him at Sicyon, he set sail from Anticyra with ten quinqueremes, which his brother, Lucius Quinctius, happened to have brought a little before from his winter station at Corcyra, and passed over to Sicyon.
Nearly about the same time, fifty-five ships of war of the Carthaginians, with Bomilcar as commander of the fleet, put into the great harbour of Syracuse from the sea, and a Roman fleet of thirty quinqueremes landed the first legion at Panormus; and so intent were both the contending powers upon Sicily, that the seat of war might seem to have been removed from Italy.
None of the states affected by the war had any fleet corresponding to the Roman fleet of 220 quinqueremes, which had just returned from the Adriatic to the western sea. The natural and proper application of this crushing superiority of force was self-evident. It had been long settled that the war ought to be opened with a landing in Africa.
The sight of two quinqueremes, which it was the firm opinion of everybody belonged to the enemy, and might be overpowered by superior numbers before they entered the harbour, produced no other effect than a tumult and confusion among the soldiers and sailors, who endeavoured to no purpose to get their arms and ships ready; for their sails, impelled by a somewhat brisker gale from the sea, brought the quinqueremes into the harbour before the Carthaginians weighed their anchors, and no one dared make any further stir now that they were in the king's harbour.
The Romans now learned, what Dionysius, Agathocles, and Pyrrhus had learned before, that it was as difficult to conquer the Carthaginians as it was easy to beat them in the field. They saw that everything depended on procuring a fleet, and resolved to form one of twenty triremes and a hundred quinqueremes. The execution, however, of this energetic resolution was not easy.
Hoping to take the city by sudden assault, before it could be properly got ready for defence, Appius pushed forward his land force, fully provided with blinds and ladders, against the walls. At the same time a fleet of sixty quinqueremes under the consul Marcellus advanced to the assault from the side of the harbor.
To these five quinqueremes were assigned, in order that, in a manner suitable to the dignity of the Roman people, they might visit those lands where it was important to gain respect for the Roman name.
The slingers, archers, and corn were handed over to the consuls. To the fleet which Titus Otacilius the proprietor had in Sicily, twenty-five quinqueremes were added, and permission was given him, if he thought it for the interest of the state to pass over into Africa. The levy completed, the consuls waited a few days, till the allies of the Latin confederacy arrived.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking