t Aristot. Oecon. ii. 24; Xen, Hell. v. 3.1; Pollux, x. 14.
§ Grotius (as Professor Knowling mentions) understood it as nae ee iumentis imponere, See also Hapositor, March 1895, p. 216f,
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) 399
constructed. lLucian’s Navigiwm describes an Alexandrian corn vessel towards the end of the 2nd cent. as 120 cubits, or 180 feet, in length; from which James Smith (Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul*, p. 182 ff.) caleulates the tonnage as between 1100 and 1200, a much more sober esti- mate than some scholars reach. Josephus (Vit. 3) sailed for Rome in a ship which carried 600 passengers, St. Paul in one carrying 276.*
In shape and in rigging, however, there had not been much improvement on the more ancient and primitive vessels. There was still a great deal of unnecessary and useless length in the high bow and stern, which stood far out above the water ; so that there was a great difference between the leneth of that part of the keel which was immersed and the total length of the ship. The ship was sailed mainly by one large sail on the single mast : hence it was always difficult to shorten sail and to adapt the ship to a wind as it grew stronger. Moreover, the leverage of the single huge sail on a single mast exercised a tremendous disruptive power on the hull of the vessel: hence ancient vessels encountered much greater danger in the open sea than modern sailing vessels have to face, and were often sunk owing to the timbers being wrenched asunder by the straining of the mast, and the ship being thus made leaky and unfit to keep out the water; whereas modern sailing vessels are usually safe in the open sea and more in danger near shore.
In addition to the great sail} other sails were also used, though apparently only as subsidiary ; and they were not employed in every ship. There was sometimes a topsail (swpparwm) above the great sail. Moreover, there were one or more small storm-sails, which could be substituted for the great sail when the wind was too strong: some such subsidiary sails were an absolute neces- sity in a ship which had to go on a voyage far from home.
There were also small sails—one or more on the bow, and one behind the great sail towards the sterm. These seem all to have been only occa- sionally used as supplementary. In Ac 27% the artemon was set to work the disabled ship. A single sail, set to work a large ship, must have been either rigged on the great mast, or set further forward. If the mast was still fit to be used, the former would be more probable; but some ana- logous cases point to the artemon being rather a foresail, set on the bow, where a small mast was often placed (as is shown in several works of ancient art). The case mentioned by Juvenal (Sat. xii. 69), where a ship disabled by a storm manages to make its way into harbour by the sail on the prow, the only remaining one, which the scholiast explains as the artemon, must in this obscure subject be regarded as the strongest piece of evidence available.t ;
_Ships of war were more lightly built, for the sake of rapid manceuvring, and were as a general rule impelled partly at least by oars. Hence they were independent of the winds to a great degree, But, owing to the slightness of their build, they could not venture on long over-sea voyages :
* Some scholars say that the ship Dioscuri, which wintered at Malta, took on board the whole 276 (Ac 2811); but this is not stated in the text, though it may possibly be true: if the Dioscuri could take on board 276 passengers beyond its own complement—even crowded in for a short voyage of a few days —it must have been a very large vessel. Aide te
+It is advisable to avoid the name ‘mainsail,’ which is a technical term with a different connotation in modern ships.
t Quod superaverat unum, velo prora suo. The scholiast says artemone solo velificaverunt. It is possible that he was only making an inference from Acts or some other similar passage ; but such a mere possibility cannot be considered to counter- balance the probability in his favour or to invalidate his evidence.
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moreover, they had not storage room for the equipment needed for such voyages. See above, I. § vii. p. 381.
viii. PASSENGER SuIps.—The ships of which travellers availed themselves were doubtless as a rule trading ships, whose movements were deter- mined mainly by considerations of freight and lading, not of passengers; in other words, the ships made money mainly from the freight, and not from the oe fares. Hence regular ser- vices at stated intervals for the convenience mainly of passengers probably did not exist. Travellers embarked in a vessel that happened to be going in their direction, and were dependent on the chances of the trade; and, as we have seen above, this often affected the arrangement of their journey.
There must, however, have been certain excep- tions. The large numbers of persons who visited the great religious festivals and games must have required special vessels where a sea had to be crossed; and just as special steamers now run from Smyrna and Athens for the festival of the Panagia of Tino, so in ancient times the people of the Ionian race were conveyed to the great national reunion in the festival of Apollo of Delos, whose place the Panagia has taken. In some cases, where presence at the festival was a national duty, the city probably sent the people at State expense. But in many cases, and especially in later times, when national ties were weakened, and the festivals were visited chiefly from motives of curiosity, artistic and athletic interest, or enjoy- ment, the ships were run from commercial motives, and the owners profited by the fares of passengers.