Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/314

296 29G HISTORV OF GREECE. made for it long before, especially for the most effective employ ment of the naval force. The captains and ship-masters of Syra cuse and Corinth had now become fully aware of the superiority of Athenian nautical manoeuvre, and of the causes upon which that superiority depended. The Athenian trireme was of a build comparatively light, fit for rapid motion through the water, and for easy change of direction : its prow was narrow, armed with a sharp projecting beak at the end, but hollow and thin, not calculated to force its way through very strong resistance. It was never intended to meet, in direct impact and collision, the prow of an enemy: such a proceeding passed among the able seamen of Athens for gross awkwardness. In advancing against an enemy's vessel, they evaded the direct shock, steered so as to pass by it, then, by the excellence and exactness of their rowing, turned swiftly round, altered their direction and came back before the enemy could alter his : or perhaps rowed rapidly round him, or backed their ship stern foremost, until the opportunity was found for driving the beak of their ship against some weak part of his, against the midships, the quarter, the stern, or the oar- blades without. In such manoeuvres the Athenians were unrival- led : but none such could be performed unless there were ample sea-room, which rendered their present naval station the most dis- advantageous that could be imagined. They were cooped up in the inmost part of a harbor of small dimensions, close on the station of their enemies, and with all the shore, except their own lines, in possession of those enemies : so that they could not pull round from want of space, nor could they back water, because they durst not come near shore. In this contracted area, the only mode of fighting possible was by straightforward collision, prow against prow ; a process which not only shut out all their superior manoeuvring, but was unsuited to the build of their tri- remes. On the other hand, the Syracusans, under the advice of the able Corinthian steersman Aristo, altered the construction of their triremes to meet the special exigency of the case, disregard- ing all idea of what had been generally looked upon as good nautical manoeuvring. 1 Instead of the long, thin, hollow, and Thucyd. vii, 36. rfj Se KpoTepov ufia^i<f TUV Kt SepvyiiLv Soxoi-ay