HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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those districts which had been embodied and disciplined under the orders of theirformer rulers, in support of a very desperate cause. Thus Severus, with thelegions of Pannonia, overcame Julian, and his faithless Praetorians without ablow. Niger and Albinus sunk in succession before the fortune and abilitiesof the same emperor ; but in neither of these contests were fleets of any kindor description called into action, except for the casual transportation of provi-sions or stores, and the conveyance of Albinus with his army from Britain,where he had commanded with the highest credit at the head of three legions,and a numerous corps of auxiliary troops. On the instant he declared himselfa candidate for the purple, he took every possible means of recruiting and aug-menting his army by the most liberal donations ; so that at the bloody encounternear Lyons, which put a final period to his hopes and his life, his army is saidto have amounted to fourscore thousand men.

Although a force amounting to two thirds that number, admitting him tohave passed over from Britain with no greater army, and to have raised theremainder after his arrival in France, may at first sight be supposed to haverequired a considerable number of vessels for its conveyance ; yet when theshortness of the passage from Britain into Gaul is considered, and added tosuch leisure as the remote situation of Severus, at that time engaged in Cilicia,against his second rival Niger, afforded ; the difficulty of the transport, as wellas the number of vessels required for the purpose, will be found most wonderfullyto diminish. Mention is made indeed of a fleet consisting of five hundredvessels being enclosed in Byzantium, when that city, situated where Constanti-nople now is, was besieged by Severus, on account of its attachment to hisrival Niger : yet it is admitted on all hands, that by far the greatest part ofthem were vessels built for the inferior purposes of commerce, being in generalentirely open, and without decks ; while but a small proportion were gallies ofthe lowest rate, having two banks of oars, a very inconsiderable number onlybeing furnished with three. To such a forlorn state was the navy of Romefallen at this time, that the fleet just mentioned comprehended nearly the wholeof it.

For the space of more than fifty years from the death of Albinus, no mentionis made in history of any naval force, whatever, used by the Romans in their owndefence, or brought into action either by their intestine or foreign enemies inaid of their projects. The whole of the period was almost an uninterruptedscene of intestine warfare. The election and elevation of the .favourite .of the

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