Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/39

 make special offerings to the gods in testimony of their gratitude; sometimes hanging up in a neighbouring temple the garment in which they had been saved, or shaving their hair—a custom Petronius justly calls the last vow of men who have saved nothing but their lives.

Rigid discipline was maintained on board the ships, and punishments of great severity inflicted on those who failed to keep proper ward and watch; nay, even the barbarous practice of "keel-hauling," once not uncommon in the English service, was not wholly unknown to the ancients. The crews were generally composed of two classes; the mariners, who attended to the navigation and trimming of the sails, and the rowers. These offices were usually kept distinct, the mariners being rarely, except in cases of great emergency, compelled to labour at the oars.

The work of the rowers, to which we shall allude more particularly hereafter, was one of severe toil; hence, as in modern times, the music of the voice or the pipe stimulated the rowers to fresh exertion or tended to relieve the depressing monotony of their work. Many ancient writers, and notably Xenophon, Polybius, and Arrian, have left us interesting accounts of the way in which the rowers were trained; the practice of the Greeks and Romans, and especially that of the latter people, having been remark-*