Note 66 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
This fleet of Semiramis is probably about as real as Shakspere’s seacoast of Bohemia. What the amount of Cleopatra’s fleet might be we do not know; but at Actium she had only 60 ships. In the last example Stow is within bounds. Froissart says that 1287 ships were prepared on this occasion. What sort of cock-boats they were is another question.