indicating her name Acécxovpoi, translated ‘ Castor
and Pollux’ in the AV and ‘The Twin Brothers’ in the RV. Whether the parasemon was, in this case, a painting on either side of the stem denoting
the fratres Helene, sons of Jupiter, who were then
specially venerated as the patrons of sailors,§ like St. George and St. Nicholas in modern days, or whether they formed her ‘figurehead,’ we do not know; but both modes of indicating a ship’s name, and, occasionally, a combination of the two, were in vogue at that time in Roman ships. That these ships were capable of ‘ working to windward’ like modern sailing ships there can be no manner of doubt, although, possibly, not lying so close to the wind as within 5 or 6 points of the compass ; but the quotation from Pliny (HN ii. 48) does not refer to ‘beating,’ and merely states that ships with the game wind sail in opposite directions according to the ‘tack’ they are on, and often meet one another, which can obviously be done with the wind fair or abeam.|| The modern nautical term corresponding to the Greek zepehOdvres xarnvry- capev eis ‘Piyyiov (Ac 281), translated in the AV ‘we fetched a compass and came to Rhegium’ (RV ‘made a circuit’),"1 would be ‘ we beat up to Rhe- gium,’ the only course open to her in making for that port from Syracuse with a northerly wind, which is clearly indicated by her waiting there a day for a change of wind to the south. That these ships were fast sailers we know from contemporary statements of ancient authors, and especially from Pliny, who, in speaking of the marvellous utility of the flax plant, of which sails were made, in re- ducing the time occupied in a voyage from Egypt to Italy, instances a voyage recently made from the Straits of Messina to Alexandria, by two Roman prefects, E. Galerius and Balbillus, in 7 and 6 days respectively ; and another voyage from Puteoli to Alexandria by Valerius Marianus, a Roman senator, ‘Jenissimo flatu,’ in 9 days.** St. Paul’s voyage from Rhegium to Puteoli (180 miles) was effected in 2 days (but see art. ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT), . 379).
Of the fishing and passenger boats on the Sea of Galilee (Lake of Tiberias), which were evidently very numerous in our Lord’s time, we have no description.
* Guhl and Koner, Life of the Greeks and Romans, fig. 294, . 259,
» + Torr, Ancient Ships, p. 101. § Hor. Carm. i. 3. ;
| Smith, DB2, art. ‘Ships and Boats.’
{| WH (following Bs?) read zspienevres, ‘ cast loose.
** FAN xix. 1.
t Ib. p. 108.
ee
368 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN OT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN OT)
Se ATOR a neaepollion and Rosellini, Monuments de Egypte; August Boeckh, Urkunden ‘iber das Seewesen des Attischen Staates; B. Glaser, Uber das Seewesen des alten Lgypten ; M. Jal, Archéologie Navale; F. Steinitz, The Ship, its Origin and Progress; Carl R. Lepsius, Denknidler aus Egypten und Ethiopien ; Diimichen, Die Flotte einer Egyptischen Konigin ; A. H. Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, and Nineveh and its Remains; Cecil Torr, Ancient Ships; James Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul; Wilkinson, The Ancient Egyptians; Canon G. Rawlinson, Zhe Seven Ancient Mon- archies; Egypt. Exploration Fund, Tomb of Pateri at el-Kab, Deshasheh (tomb of Anta and Mera), Deir el-Bahri_ (Punt Expedition); G. Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization ; E. Guhl and W. Koner, The Life of the Greeks and Romans; Canney, art. ‘Ship’ in Hneyel. Biblica. R. M. BLOMFIELD.
ROADS AND TRAYEL (IN oT).—
I. Roaps. i. Position and conformation of Palestine. ii. Hebrew terms for ‘road.’ Metaphorical usages. iii, Various kinds of roads. iv. The roads of the OT.
1, Roads connecting Palestine with other coun- tries : (a) Arabia, (0) Egypt, (c) Syria, Assyria and Babylonia.
2. Roads in Palestine: in (a) Judea, (b) Samaria, (c) Galilee, (d@) the Jordan Valley (including the fords), (e) on the east of the Jordan.
II. TRAVEL. i. Motives for travelling : (a) attendance at religious festivals, etc., (b) commerce, (c) political relations,
(d) ill-health, (¢) war. Travelling hampered for
Jews by the Sabbath law.
ii. Modes of travel: on foot, riding (asses, mules, camels, horses), chariots, ox-way'gons, caravans.
iii. Provision for the wants of travellers. Inns a late institution. Khans, Oriental hospitality. Literature.
I, RoADS.—i. POSITION AND CONFORMATION OF PALESTINE.—The land inhabited by the Israelites seemed from its position to have been predestined to form a meeting- point in the world’s lines of communication. On the western side its situation brought it into connexion with the Mediterranean coasts ; on the south-west the country was closely bound to Egypt, that land of ancient civilization ; on the south to Arabia, which was traversed by richly laden caravans; while on the north there were approaches from the coast by the Merj ‘Ayytm (‘the entering in of Hamath,’ Nu 348, Jos 13°, and often), and by the S.E. side of Antilibanus, to the cultured lands beyond, and further to the great empires of the Euphrates. It was only on the east that an insurmountable barrier to com- munication was presented by the cheerless desert.
For the Israelites themselves, however, these ad- vantages of situation had not the significance that might have been expected. The seacoast with its harbours, some of which were poor enough, was (apart from the period referred to in Gn 4915) in the hands of the Pheenicians and the Philistines, to whom thus belonged the important points at which the caravans coming from Damascus or Arabia unloaded their goods for further transport by sea. Consequently the Israelites, when they sought to take a share in international commerce, found themselves compelled to make the distant port of ‘Ezion-geber the starting-point of their shipping trade. It was not till the latest period of Jewish history that they got Joppa into their hands, a possession afterwards supplemented by the harbour of Czesarea, which had been repaired by Herod.