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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

mencement of their naval empire is fixed at the distance of four hundred yearsfrom the destruction of Troy, and consequently near fifty before Rome itselfwas founded. They are said to have been the first people who established aregular system for the construction of vessels, and to have been the authorsof many of those contrivances or additions of beams and timbers, which,contributing to render vessels more capable of enduring those rude shocksthey were in all probability destined to encounter, consequently lessened, inno small degree, all the manifold dangers to which the early navigators weremore particularly exposed. The Corinthians are moreover said to have beenthe first inventors of triremes; and the acquisition of this power almost natu-rally, without intending a sarcasm, produced ambition, with the desire of con-quest. The inhabitants of Corcyra, an island now called Corfu, felt the firsteffects of this impulse. They had for many years held a distinguished rankas a maritime people, while the art of navigating, as well as constructingvessels, had been confined to a more humble sphere, but compelled to yield tothe superior skill and power of their assailants : they were driven from theirsettlements, which were occupied by the invaders.

The just and retributive punishment due to so flagrant and unprovoked aviolation of the law of nature, as well as of nations, fell on the Corinthians.The inhabitants of the new colony, naturally pursuing the same steps andmeasures which the mother country had taught them the means of practising,soon acquired a knowlege and consequence which enabled them to giveconsiderable disturbance to the parent state. The feuds, the disputes, whichexisted between them, were continual. If Corinth boasted of her triremes,the Corcyrians were equally proud in possessing vessels scarcely inferior inforce and dimensions. To such an height did their confidence soon rise, thatafter some preparatory altercation, they commenced a regular naval war againsttheir parent. The Corcyrians were indeed subdued; and the contest is themore entitled to notice, on account of the naval combat which took place inconsequence of it, which stands on record as the first contest of that particularkind which had then ever happened since the creation of the world. It is sup-posed to have taken place A. M. 3295, or thereabouts, nearly one hundredyears after the foundation of Rome.

From this epoch the system of naval war may be said to commence ; forthough much earlier mention is made of ships, and even fleets, having beenfitted out by different personages, and on different occasions, yet there is no evi-dence