for Hiero, two centuries B. C

147

Chap. 16.]

of different colors, (mosaics) representing scenes from Homer’s Iliad .The doors, Windows and ceilings were finished with ‘ wonderful art,’ andembellished with every kind of Ornament. The kitchen is mentioned ason this deck and next to the Stern, also three large rooms for eating. Inthe third gallery were lodgings for the soldiers, and a gymnasium orplace of exercise. There were also gardens in this vessel, in whichvarious plants were arranged with taste ; and among them walks, propor-tioned to the magnitude of the ship, and shaded by arbors of ivy andvines, whose roots were in large vessels filled with earth. Adjacent tothese was a room, named the ‘ apartment of Venus,’ the floor of whichwas paved with agate and other precious stones : the walls, roof andWindows were of cypress wood, and adorned with vases, statues, paint-ings, and inlaid with ivory. Another room, the sides and Windows ofwhich were of box wood, contained a library ; the ceilings representedthe heavens, and on the top or outside was a sun dial. Another apart-ment was fitted up for bathing. The water was heated in three largecopper cauldrons,- and the bathing vessel was made of a single stone ofvariegated colors. It contained sixty gallons. There were also ten sta-bles placed on both sides of the vessel, together with straw and corn for thehorses, and conveniences for the horsemen and their servants. At certaindistanees, pieces of timber projected, upon which were piles of wood,ovens, mills, and other contrivances for the Services of life.

At the ship’s head was a large reservoir of’fresh water, formed of plankand pitched. Near it was a conservatory for fish, lined with sheet lead,and cöntaining salt water; although the well or hold was extremelydeep, one man, Atheneus says, could pump out all the water that leakedmto her, by a screw pump which Archimedes adapted to that purpose.There were probably other hydraulic machines on board, for the plants,bathing apparatus, and kitchen, &c. The upper decks were suppliedwith water by pipes of eartheirware and of lead; the latter, most like-ly, extending from pumps or other engines that raised the liquid; for thereis reason to believe that machines analogous to forcing pumps were atthat time known.

The ‘ Syracusan ’ was laden with corn and sent as a present to theKing of Egypt, upon which her name was changed to that of the ‘ Alex-andria.’ Magnificent as this vessel was, she appears to have been sur-passed by one subsequently built by Ptolemy Philopater; a descriptionof which is given by Montfaucon, in the fourth volume of his antiquities.

Por the Spiral Pump of Wirtz, söe the end of the 3d Book.