HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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connection either in amity, or with which it was engaged in war during aconsiderable part of the sixth century, that possessed, or appeared to covet,a navy, except the Abyssinians, a people far removed from the possible seatof war, but with whom Justinian thought it not derogatory to his imperialdignity to enter into a commercial intercourse. They are, without the neces-sity of fiction or exaggeration, represented as a people far excelling, in theirknowlege of arts and of science, any of the nations then esteemed barba-rous, which surrounded them; for they are reported to have carried on aconsiderable trade v/ith India, but the principles adopted by them in the con-struction of their vessels, are too vaguely or too romantically described to meritany serious attention. It seems, however, far from improbable, that this veryenlightened people, although they could not aspire to that degree of improve-ment which the shipping of Europe boasted, yet they held a far superiorrank as marine architects to the Chinese, whose science and whose practice,particularly in the art of ship-building, is supposed to have remained innearly a quiescent state from a period considerably antecedent to the reignof Justinian.

To return again to the history of Rome, the subsequent siege of the unfor-tunate and apparently devoted capital by Totila, the Goth, furnished a newopportunity for the genius and bravery of the great Belisarius to display itself.The assailants, aware of the approach of that chief, and conscious of hisvery superior abilities, had prudently taken every precaution their wisdom andtheir science could suggest, to prevent his accomplishing the object of hismarch, and relieving the besieged, who were reduced to the most wretchedstate of misery and distress. An immense boom, or floating raft, of tim-ber, was thrown across the river, and the approach to it was defended bytwo fortresses, or castles, garrisoned by the best troops in the Gothic army.To render the obstacles to attack still more formidable, a strong chain waslaid across the Tyber, in front of the works just mentioned, and flanked fromthe shore by detachments of archers, chosen and selected with care fromamong their comrades, on account of their extraordinary expertness. Allthese multiplied impediments proved insufficient to avert the design, or dampthe ardour of the intrepid Roman. After providing two hundred large boats,he caused them to be properly fitted with mantelets, or blinds, formed of thick,planks, through which proper loopholes were cut for the discharge of arrows,

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