Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/315

297 NAVAL PREPARATIONS AT SYRACUSE. $-17 sharp, ad/ancing beak, striking the enemy considerably above the water-level, and therefore doing less damage, they shortened the prow, but made it excessively heavy and solid, and lowered the elevation of the projecting beak : so that it became not so much calculated to pierce, as to break in and crush by main force all the opposing part of the enemy's ship, not far above the water. What were called the epotids, " ear-caps," or nozzles, projecting forwards to the right and left of the beak, were made peculiarly thick, and sustained by under-beams let in to the hull of the ship. In the Attic build, the beak stood forward very prominent, and the epotids on each side of it were kept back, serving the same purpose as what are called catheads, in modern ships, to which the anchors are suspended : but in the Corinthian build, the beak pro- jected less, and the epotids more, so that they served to strike the enemy : instead of having one single beak, the Corinthian ship might be said to have three nozzles. 1 The Syracusans relied on the narrowness of the space, for shutting out the Athenian evolutions, and bringing the contest to nothing more than a straightforward collision ; in which the weaker vessel would be broken and stove in at the prow, and thus rendered unman- ageable. Having completed these arrangements, their land-force waa rb uvriTrpupov Zvynpovcrai, paJiiOT 1 uv aiirol xpr/aaa&ai- irfalaTov yap it> avrif) cxriaeiv, etc. Diodor. xiii, 10. 1 Compare Thucyd. vii, 34-36 ; Diodor. xiii, 10 ; Eurip. Iph. Taur. 1335. Sec also the notes of Arnold, Poppo, and Didot, on the passages of Thu- cydides. It appears as it the uvTTjp'itief or sustaining beams were something new, now provided for the first time, in order to strengthen the epotid and render it fit to drive in collision against the enemy. The words which Thucydidea employs to describe the position of these uvTripidef, are to me very obscure, nor do I think that any of the commentators clear them up satisfactorily. It is Diodorus who specifies that the Corinthians lowered thft level of their prows, so as to strike nearer to the water, which Thucydides docs not mention. A captive ship, when towed in as a prize, was disarmed by being de- prived of her beak (Athcnaeus, xii, p. 535). Lysandcr reserved the beaks of the Athenian triremes captured at JEgospotami to grace his triumphal return (Xenoph. Hollen. ii. 3, 8). 13*