HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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ject, at that time new in theory as well as practice, proved completely success-ful : the hopes of Alexander were frustrated, at least for a time, and everytrace as to the labour of so many thousand men, vanished almost in an instant,for the whole of the stupendous work was completely destroyed. Nor was iton such an occasion alone as the preceding, that these destructive engines ofwar, as they might, without impropriety be stiled, were used. Various werethe occasions on which they were employed, especially in the attack of fleets\yhen lying in harbour, for in this particular application of them, the ancientsappear to have been most expert.

Cassius, who during the civil war between Ciesar and Pompey, commandeda fleet of the latter, surnamed the Great, surprised and attacked a division of thenaval force belonging to the former, which then lay at Messina, under the ordersof Marcus Pomponius. The wind being favourable for the project, the assailantordered a number of vessels, which had been built either as transports, or forcommercial purposes, to be expeditiously filled with pitch, flax, and othermaterials that were considered as most combustible. These, when fitted pro-perly for the enterprise, were sent among the ships of Pomponius, and withsuch success, that thirty-five were burnt, twenty of which were gallies of thefirst rate or class then constructed. A second attack was made quickly after-wards by the same commander on another division of Caesar’s fleet, whichthen lay at Vibo, a port in that part of Italy called Calabria. It was, ifpossible, more formidable than the former, no less than forty fireships havingbeen employed on the occasion. The tremendous assault was made on bothwings of the enemy with such violence, that several of their ships were actuallyconsumed ; but a great number of veteran soldiers, who had been stationedto protect the fleet, being struck most forcibly with grief and shame at seeingthe objects they w'ere placed to defend consumed without a contest, threwthemselves, as it were, in despair, on board such vessels as the fire had notthen reached, and loosing their sails, attacked the fleet of Cassius with so muchviolence, that four of his principal gallies, two of them Quinquiremes, weretaken. One of these was that on board which Cassius had himself fought:he with great difficulty made his escape in a small boat ; and the remainder ofhis fleet, beholding the sudden capture of their companions, retired in muchconfusion.

Thus much for the fireships of the ancients; and the effects produced bythem, though simple in their contrivance, were, considering the less adequateVol. I. T means