their teams of horses. Such a service required also careful study >f the seasons and the winds. Experience showed that there were seasons when the winds could be reckoned upon with con- fidence, and others when the long voyage was unsaie or impossible. The important period to notice is that of the Etesian winds; and it is doubtful whether the direct voyage was hazarded (as a rule) except when they were blowing. In the year A.D. 38, when Agrippa was eager to go quickly from Rome to occupy his kingdom in northern Palestine, he was advised to wait for the Etesian winds, and then sail direct to Alexandria and thence cross to Palestine. He reached Alex- andria in a few days,* arriving apparently early in August. This passage of Philo (i Flac. 5) is extremely important for the system of communi- cation with Syria and Egypt.
In the open Mediterranean Sea and the Levant the Etesian winds are said to have blown from the north-west steadily for forty days after 20 July (or thirty days from 1 August); and at this season it was difficult for news from the East to reach Rome (Tac. Hist. ii. 98); and the Etesian winds prevented a voyage from Alexandria to Italy (Cesar, de Bell. Civ. iii. 107),+ or from Rhodes to Athens (Cicero, ad Att. vi. 7). They began to blow each day towards noon, but never earlier in the morning. There is much difference among the ancients as to the direction and duration of the Etesian winds; but the diversity is due doubtless to the facts that (1) they vary in different seas, (2) any regularly recurring time of fairly steady wind was Etesian (7.e. annual).
The statements as to the Etesian winds drawn from the ancient writers (see the quotations in Facciolati and Forcellini’s Lexicon) are entirely confirmed by modern meteorological experience, except that ‘the north-west winds prevail in the summer months’ generally, and not exclusively during the forty days from July 20. These winds prevail in that season ‘throughout the whole of the Mediterranean, but mostly in the eastern half.’ In fact it is probable that, to the sailors of the Alexandrian Roman fleets, the Etesian winds meant simply the summer winds, and roughly corresponded to the period of open sea from the end of May to the middle of September. The statements restricting the number of days during which the winds blow are probably taken from Greek writers who were speaking more of the Aigean Sea.}
But Agrippa had to wait some little time for a ship. The delay is explained by Philo as due to waiting on the winds; but in all probability this is not quite a complete account. It was necessary also to wait until a fleet of ships was ready. Single vessels did not venture on the long sea course.
The reason why the long voyage was made by a whole fleet in company was, doubtless, safety. One ship could aid another. There is, of course, a good deal of exaggeration in Philo’s account of the certainty with which the ships reached their goal. A single ship could not be certain of making directly the harbour of Alexandria after being six or eight days out of sight of land; and might easily miss Egypt altogether and sight Cyrene on the one hand or Syria on the other. But witha large fleet sailing with a widely extended front, the ships keeping within signalling distance of one
* The expression éA/ycus juipess must not be pressed too closely; it is opposed to the long coasting passage (see p. 379»), and probably indicates a period of 15 to 20 days: see below.
+t Here the Etesian winds are spoken of as blowing in early
October; but this is due to the disorder of the Roman calendar, Cesar reached Alexandria on 3 Oct.; but this date
was really equivalent to late July or early August.
t See the excellent discussion, with quotations from modern experience at sea, in James Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck yp. 64, 76 ff.
of St. Paul,
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) 379
another, the experience of one would guide the others ; when the ship on the extreme right came in sight of the Cyrenaic or Egyptian coast, it would signal accordingly, and the news would spread to the extreme left immediately ; or if, on the other hand, after having run far enough, the ship on the right had not sighted any land, or that on the left of the fleet had sighted Crete,* this would show that all had taken too northerly a course ; and sailing directions would be signalled over the whole fleet.
Similarly, the westward-going vessels tried to sail in a body, as we see from Seneca, Hpist. Mor. 77, 1. But exceptions occurred on this route, if vessels were belated and obliged to make the voyage alone (as in Ac 278 281),
It is not to be supposed that all the corn vessels sailed in one single fleet at the same time. There could not possibly be facilities for loading nearly all the vessels simultaneously ; and it would have been an absurdly wasteful method for the first to wait until the last were loaded. Beyond a doubt, there must have been several successive companies, which sailed together: when a certain number were ready they would start. Moreover, it is known that even single corn ships were occasion- ally engaged on a voyage, as we have seen in the preceding paragraph. A dedicatory inscription, - erected by the master of a corn ship which was evidently wintering in the harbour of Pheenix, is quoted by James Smith (Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, p. 261; also in CIL iii. 3).