9 2

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

and the greater part of the remainder sunk, or rendered so unfit for fartherservice, that very few were able to effect their escape, bearing the melancholyintelligence of their own defeat.

The Spartans, or Lacedaemonians as they were indiscriminately called, en-vious of that character and consequence which Athens had acquired, endea-voured, by reiterated contests, to weaken and depress her. They had amanifest superiority with respect to their army, but this was at least counter-balanced by the excellence of the Athenian mariners; the skill which theircommanders possessed in naval tactics, and above all, the scientific manner inwhich, speaking by comparison, their gallies were constructed. Equal, there-fore, as they might be considered in respect to force, and animated with amutual animosity towards each other, the contest became dreadful, and con-tinuous. The conclusion and public agreement to a truce during a givenj|time^proved insufficient to secure the tranquillity of both countries, even duringthat short period ; for though the respective governments of each countryforbore to act hostilely towards each other, private warfare, and depredationswere so constantly committed by the inhabitants of both states against eachother, that nothing was wanting to an open and avowed state of hostility butthe name itself. Rarely, however, was the scene of combat transferred to theocean : the Lacedaemonians, conscious of their own inferiority, constantly and:carefully shunned that mode of decision, which they dreaded as fatal tothem.

Although that peculiar species of inclination which severs and distinguishesthe pursuits of one country from those of another, naturally, as it were, swayedthe Lacedaemonians to military pursuits, and rendered them averse to all ma-ritime enterprize ; yet the persuasion of necessity at length induced them toattempt, at least, the formation of something like a marine. “ Dimidium facti,qui caepit, habet.” A state which has once engaged in a pursuit, may beconsidered as having half accomplished the end of it. Thus was it with theLacedaemonians ; for in a space of time wonderfully short, from that whenthey first commenced marine architects, they appeared at sea with a fleet whichmight, to nations unacquainted with the true principles of naval war, haveappeared formidable.

It is a natural effort of the human mind, when it considers itself unequal to thetask of contest on the score of science, to attempt remedying that deficiency by theapparent superiority of force which it brings into action. Thus was it with the

Spartans.