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186

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

present. The separation of the naval and military professions is at once theeffect and cause of the modem improvements in the science of navigation, andmaritime war. In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about thetime of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six hundred ships was ranged inthe martial pomp before the gardens of the palace. The patriarch pronouncedhis benediction, the emperor signified his last commands, the general’s trumpetgave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to its fears or wishes,explored, with anxious curiosity, the omens of misfortune and success.

Again. “ In the navigation from the Hellespont to Peloponnesus, which theGreeks, after the siege of Troy, had performed in four days, the fleet of Beli-sarius was guided in their course by his master galley, conspicuous in the dayby the redness of the sails, and in the night by the torches blazing from themast head. It was the duty of the pilots, as they steered between the islands,and turned the capes of Malaga and Tagnarium, to preserve the just order andregular intervals of such a multitude of ships. As the wind was fair and mo-derate, their labours were not unsuccessful, and the troops were safely disem-barked at Methone, on the Messinian coast, to repose themselves for a whileaftpr the fatigues of the sea.”

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