HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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Fig. 14. is a prow of a more singular form than perhaps any of the preceding,taken from the coins of Panticapaeum, a large city in Taurica.

Fig. 15 represents the prow of an Athenian galley, decorated by way ofornament with an owl, the usual emblem or device of that city.

Fig. 17 is the prow of a Macedonian vessel of war.

. Fig. 18, 20, and 36, are prows of gallies taken from the coins of the city ofMegara, in Achaia.

Fig. 19 and 37 are the heads of vessels from the coins of Leucas, an island inthe Ionian sea.

Fig. 21 is the prow of a vessel of Sinope, a city of Paphlagonia.

Fig. 22 is the head of a vessel whose country is unknown.

Fig. 23 and 24 are the prows of vessels of Byzantium ; on the latter is thefigure of a man exhorting or directing the crew.

Fig. 27, 31, 32, 33, and 34, are representations apparently in very good pre-servation, taken from the vessels of Phaselis, a town in Lycia.

Fig. 38, 39, 40, 41, and 42, are representations taken from Roman coins ofthe prows of vessels belonging to that republic, or empire.

Thus from forty-two undoubted specimens of this abstract branch of AncientMarine Architecture, indiscriminately taken as they could be collected, the greaterpart of them are solely representations of the prows or beaks of ships, and pecu-liarly intended for that purpose, a proof, and by no means an inconsiderable one,of the superior consequence attached in the minds of the ancients , to the forma-tion of that part of the vessel, by which they considered themselves principallyenabled to annoy their enemies, or return their attack.

Nor were they attentive only to such improvements and inventions as hadmerely utility, or the annoyance of their enemies to recommend them, for shew,splendour, and magnificence attracted no inconsiderable share of notice. Evenas early as the Trojan war, it was a custom, if the authority of Homer maybe relied on, to paint various parts of the galley with the most gaudy co-lours, especially' red, which is supposed to have been native cinnabar* Bluewas also in no inconsiderable fashion, particularly for the ornament of scoutvessels, as more nearly resembling the hue of the sea than any other primitivecolour, and therefore most proper to prevent their being discovered at any con-siderable distance : nor was white in much less request. Pliny informs us,that a certain earth, not improbably chalk, brought from Smyrna, was origin-ally applied to this purpose. But this use W'as in subsequent ages supplanted

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