HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE,

1 63

Italy, and conveyed, without meeting with opposition or misfortune, the armydestined for the protection of the state, from the southern part of Italy, to thatclassic spot of former military contest, the place where the proud city of Co-rinth had once stood, and from whence, in former ages, those fleets had issuedto which nearly the whole of the civilised world, then known, had yielded atemporary obedience.

Still was the arm of war totally confined to military exploits; and owing tothe operations of nature on one hand, aided by the ass ; stance of art on theother, Ravenna, which in the reign of Augustus had been one of the principalnaval arsenals and ports appropriated to the reception of the navy of the state,became the seat of luxury, and abandoned by the sea, which had been graduallyretiring from it for some centuries, rose, at the commencement of the fifth,into the gaudy but short-lived consequence of capitol to that territory which,curtailed as it was, still retained the name of the Roman empire. Henceit appears as though Providence intended to render the change completethroughout the whole system, and after having caused by her dispositions thealmost total relinquishment of maritime pursuits, far as they were connectedwith war : she thought proper to shew every mark of her disapprobation tothem, far as they regarded the Roman people, and prevent, by the decisiveoperation just related, any future revival of them in the same quarter of theworld.

The port of Ostia, that stupendous proof of the magnificence in labour andexpenditure of treasure, displayed by the Romans under the auspices of the firstCaesars *, still remained, but nature there appeared gradually acting precisely

* The stupendous works which were erected for the improvement of the port of Ostia, projectedand commenced under the auspices of Julius and Augustus, were finished in the reign of Claudius.They consisted principally of two immense moles or piers, carried out into the sea for a considerablelength at an immense expence. These served to break the fury of the waves, and afford an easyentrance to the largest gallies then used. Three capacious basons, which received the northern branchof theTyber, would have afforded the securest anchorage to a number of vessels, far exceeding that whichwas ever known to be collected at the port just mentioned at any one time. Previous to the improvementof the port, the sand and mud, washed down by the current of the Tyber, had nearly choaked up theentrance, and in later times, a repetition of the same natural process nearly effected the same inconve-nience. It is reported, that when some rather modern enquirers examined the remains of this stu-pendous proof of what the mind of man was capable of contriving, and the hand of executing, theydeclared with enthusiasm, that all the monarchs in Europe, at that time existing, would not be able,by their united efforts, to carry a similar work into execution.

Y 2

under