192

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

and having manned a considerable number of them with his best infantry, sentthem forward up the river, the remainder, which were laden with provisions,following in the rear. In front, and as the vanguard to the whole, a struc-ture, worthy of the genius of Archimedes himself, was, by immense labour,worked with no inconsiderable degree of swiftness against the current of theriver. It was a species of fireship, or at least intended to be applied to thesame purpose as one, but was of a very particular and uncommon construction.It was built in form somewhat similar to those towers which were used by theRomans, and the Greeks before them, when engaged in land sieges, and being filledwith archers, they were worked as near as possible to the walls, from which thedexterity of the assailants, on account of their elevated situation, soon drove thoseto whom the defence of the works was entrusted. The structure in questionwas supported between two vessels, and entirely filled with the combustiblesusually selected on such occasions. Belisarius, who led the attack, encouragedhis gallant followers, in so high a degree, by his example, and his words, thatthe fleet was impelled with such force against the chain, as caused it to yield tothe shock, and the detachments which were posted on the shore to defend it,betook themselves to instant flight. The vessels which supported the firetower instantly grappled the raft, or boom, and almost as instantaneously,one of the forts, built for the purpose of protecting it, and which was also inform of a tower, was in flames. The want of co-operation on the part of thebesieged, ow’ing, as it is said, to the treachery or avarice of the governor, ren-dered this success of no avail, so that Belisarius, and his gallant followers, afterhaving on their parts indisputably obtained victory, were under the necessity ofretiring with every mortification naturally attendant on actual defeat.

Mention is made of a fleet being collected, about two years after this time,for the relief of Ruscianum, which was then closely pressed by the Goths,who, after having been once more driven from Rome by the gallantry andgood conduct of Belisarius, had, in a subsequent inroad, been successful enoughto drive their former conqueror to the utmost extremity. But no mentionwhatever is made either of its force, or its operations, both of which, it may beconsequently concluded, were but trivial.

The Gothic arms having again acquired an ascendancy, Rome once more' fell under the dominion of Totila, who having, with expedition almost incre-dible, drawn together a fleet consisting of four hundred vessels, suddenly

attacked