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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

-the first had done, put a total period to the short-lived empire of the Vandals,•whose kingdom, as well as their fleet, passed quietly under the dominion of Romewithout the smallest subsequent contest or struggle. The Roman arms oncemore became irresistible : they were completely masters of the sea; and Sicily,the contention for which beautiful island had given birth to the first Punic war,as well as caused the destruction of so many fleets and armies, sent forth fromCarthage, and from Rome, was recovered by Belisarius almost without opposi-tion. The fortress of Palermo alone, which was considered as impregnable,and was defended by a Gothic garrison for Theodotus, presumed to resist.Belisarius is reported to have made use on this occasion of a most singularnautical contrivance, which, were it only on account of its singularity, deservesparticular remembrance. Having conveyed his ships to the very head of theharbour, he, not without incredible labour, hauled up to the mast heads of thegallies, by means of blocks and ropes, the boats that belonged to them, whichhaving filled with troops of archers, these were, on account of their elevatedstation, enabled to drive the defenders from the ramparts. The consequencewas fatal to them ; and the continuance of hostilities on such unequal terms,would have proved an act of madness, and not bravery.

The reduction of Italy and Rome followed as an apparently natural conse-quence. The Goths, however, having recovered from the first paroxysms oftheir consternation, resolved to make one grand effort to restore their fading con-sequence, and re-establish themselves in that city which, though it had fallen intotheir hands by conquest, certainly not the most equitable right existing, was ne-vertheless considered of as high a value as though it had been hereditary. Onehundred and fifty thousand Goths, with their sovereign Vitiges at their head,assembled at Ravenna, and marched forward, in the highest confidence of suc-cess, to undertake the siege of the once celebrated seat of empire ; but neitheron this occasion, nor any part of the subsequent contest, which, owing totally tothe gallantry of one man, Belisarius, produced almost the total ruin of the Gothsin their national character, was the smallest use made, nor indeed, owing to thecircumstances of the war, was there any necessity for the employment of a navalforce. The wars which soon afterwards took place between the empire andthe Gepidae, the Bulgarians, the Franks, the Schlavonians, and the Persians,were severally carried on, in the strictest possible sense of the word, by mili-tary operations. In fine, there appeared not a single country with which theRoman, or, to speak more correctly, the Constantinopolitan empire, had any

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