Note 489 — Chapter V · PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. (From 488 to 621.)

We have seen before that Rome, after the capture of Antium (Porto d’Anzo), had already a navy, but she had no galleys of three ranks or five ranks of oars. Nothing, therefore, is more probable than the relation of Titus Livius, who states that the Romans took for a model a Carthaginian quinquireme wrecked on their coast. In spite of the advanced state of science, we have not yet obtained a perfect knowledge of the construction of the ancient galleys, and, even at the present day, the problem will not be completely solved until chance furnishes us with a model.