Note 14 — Chapter I

For a more detailed discussion of these standards see papers by Dr Assmann and Mr Hill in the Zeitschrift für Numismatik, vol. xxv, and by Prof. E. Babelon in the Revue Numismatique for 1907. Prof. Babelon holds that this cruciform staff is the object which the Greeks called στυλις, a word whose meaning has never been satisfactorily determined, and that its primary object was to support the "aphlaston." The other writers do not concur. His theory that the boards which formed the aphlaston were movable and, supported by the "stylis," served to aid the navigation of the ship will not, I think, command many adherents.