II. Sources of Information. — Ancient literature is singidarly deficient in ever\'thing which relates to ships or navigation. No work written expressly on the sub- ject has come down to us; and we are dependent for our knowledge on the subject upon the incidental notices in poets and historians, or upon (he figures on coins, mar- bles, or paintings, often the works of ignorant artists, which are calculated to mislead. Recent discoveries have, however, added much to our knowledge of the subject, especially in the marbles and pictures exhumed at Herculaneum and Pompeii. No one writer in the whole range of Greek and Roman literature has supplied us (it may be doubted whether all put togetiier have supplied us) with so much information concerning the merchant-ships of the ancients as Lidvc in the narrative of Paul's voyage to Rome (Acts xxvii, xxviii). There was also dug up at the Pirteus, in 1834, a series of mar- ble slabs, on which were inscribed the inventories of the ships of the Athenian fleet. They have been published by Prof. Biickh, of Berlin, under the title of Urknnden iiber das Seewesen des ottischen Staates (Berlin, 1840, fol. and 8vo). The pictorial representations on the Egyp- tian and Assyrian moiniments supply us some additional information. Julius Pollux, in his Onomasticon, has giv- en a long list of nautical terms which, altiiough not often accompanied by explanations, puts us in possession of the terminology of ancient seamanship, and is satisfactory as agreeing in a remarkable manner with that of Luke. Isidore of Seville, in his Origines, also gives many nau- tical terms with explanations. For other literature, see at the end of this article.
III. Original Terms.— As regards Paul's voyage, it is important to remember that he accomplished it in three ships : first, the Adramy ttian vessel [see Adham vttium] which took him from Caesarea to Myra, and which was probably a coasting-vessel of no great size (Acts xxvii, 1-6); secondly, the large Alexandrian corn-ship, in which he was wrecked on the coast of Malta (ver. 6; xxviii, 1) [see Melita] ; and, thirdly, another large Al-
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exandrian corn-ship, in which he sailed from Malta by Syracuse and Kheijiiim to Putcoli (ver. 11-13).
Tlie wiird eiiipluycd by Luke of each of these ships is, with one single exception, wlien he uses vai'i; (Acts xxvii, 41), the generic term TrXoIoi' (ver. 2, 6, 10, 15, 22, 30, 37, 38, 39, 44; xxviii, 11). The same general usage prevails throughout. Elsewhere in the Acts (xx, 13, 38 ; xxi, 2, 3, 6) we have ttXoTov. So in James (^iii, 4) and in the Revelation (viii, 9; xviii, 17, 19). In the Gospels we have ttXoiov (pussim) or irXoidpiov (Mark iv, 36 ; John xxi, 8). In the Sept. we find ttKoI- ov used twenty-eight times and j'arf nine times. Both words generally correspond to the Hebrew •'3X, oni, or n':X, oniyuh. In Jonah i, 5, ivXoXov is used to repre- sent the Heb. nj^Sp, sepkindh, which, from its etymol- ogy, appears to mean a vessel covered with a deck or with hatches, in opposition to an open boat. The senses in which OKaipoQ (2 Mace, xii, 3, (5) and ffKCKpr] (Acts xxvii, IC), 32) are employed we shall notice as we pro- ceed. The use of Tpilipijc, or trireme (A. V. "galley"), is limited to a single passage in the Apocrypha (2 Mace. iv, 20). In four passages (Numb, xxiv, 24 ; Isa. xxxiii, 21 ; Ezek. xxx, 9 ; Dan. xi, 30) the Heb. terra is ''2J, tsi, 80 called from being set up or built. See Boat.
IV. Styles of Ancient Ships. — 1. Their Size. — The narrative which we take as our chief guide affords a good standard for estimating this. The ship in which I'aul was wrecked had 276 persons on board (Acts xxvii, 37), besides a cargo (ipoprwv) of wheat (ver. 10, 38) ; and all these passengers seem to have been taken on to I'uteoli in another ship (xxviii, 11) which had her own crew and her own cargo ; nor is there a trace of any dif- ficulty in the matter, though the emergency was unex- jiected. Now iu English transport-ships, prepared for carrying troops, it is a common estimate to allow a ton and a half per man ; thus we see that it would be a mis- take to sujipose that these Alexandrian corn-ships were very much smaller than modern trading-vessels. What is here stated is quite in liarmony with other instances. The ship in which Josephus was wrecked {Life, § 3), in the same part of the Levant, had 600 souls on board. Tl>€ Alexandrian corn-ship described by Lucian {Navig. s. vot(i) as driven into the Pineus by stress of weather, and as exciting general attention from her great size, would apj)Car (from a consideration of the measurements, which are explicitly given) to liave measured 1100 or 1200 tons. As to the ship of Ptolemy I'hiladelphus, de- scribed by Athenicus (v. 204), this must have been much larger; but it would be no more fair to take that as a standard than to take the " (Jreat Eastern" as a type of a modern steamer. On the whole, if we say that an ancient merchant-ship might range from 600 to 1000 tons, we are clearly within tlie mark.
2. Merchant-ships in the Old Test. — The earliest pas-