Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/64

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 8. v. MARCH, 1919.

After the battle of Zama in 202 B.C. the armistice terms of Scipio Africanus were every whit as severe as those of Marshal Foch. In addition to all else, the Carthaginians were compelled to give up their entire fleet, save ten triremes : " Naves rostratas prseter decem triremes traderent " (Livy, xxx. 37). And the spectacular end of these ships is described in chapter 43 they were publicly burnt on the high seas : " Naves provectas in altum incendi iussit. Quin-

gentas fuisse omnis generis quidam tradunt,

quarum conspectum repente incendium tarn lugubre fuisse Poenis quam si ipsa Carthago arderet."

And yet, with all these precautions, we may remember for our warning that there was a third Punic war.

It is curious to note what some of the ancient writers say of Germany itself, and still more curious to think that all these centuries afterwards German professors are still editing, collating, and expounding these old writers.

Tacitus (' Germania,' 23) alludes to the fondness of the Germans for beer ; they have for their beverage (" potui "), he says, " humor ex hordeo aut frumento in quam- .dam similitudinem vini corruptus." This is one of the earliest references to what we oall malt liquor.

Posidonius, who wrote before Caesar, speaks of the huge appetites of the Germans, and, I think, Mela does the same. Every schoolboy must recall from the background of his earliest Latin memories the words of CfBsar, i. 1 : " Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgce, proximique sunt Germanis qui trans Rhenum incolunt."

Even where Tacitus praises the Germans, as he often does, his words bear a sinister significance in the light of later experience ; e.g., ' Germania,' 24, with reference to their gambling debts : " Ea est ^in re prava pervicacia ; ipsi fidem vocant."

Had we consulted Virgil, the Bath Kol of mediaeval times, as he was once consulted for oracular purposes, a practice which developed into the Sortos Virgilianse had we so consulted him during the progress of the War, doubtless many strikingly apposite quotations might have been forthcoming. One such reader, on the very day (May 24, 1915) that Italy joined the Allies, lighted upon the line,

Italiam laeti socii clamore salutant.

^En.' III. 524.

And another, after Lieut. Warneford's brilliant exploit in bringing down a Zeppelin (and the passage gains added significance

in view of his tragic end), happened on the line,

Macte nova virtute puer ! sic itur ad astra. Of a truth this is a parallelism indeed transcending anything the Mantuan bard could dream of, though he sang of Daedalus and Icarus. J. HUDSON.

Camberwell, S.E.

LONDON-PARIS AIRSHIP.

A STRIKING anticipation of the events of to-day is provided by a handbill issued in 1835 (see illustration opposite). Both the airship and its parent society were derived from Paris, where, earlier in the same year, "The Aeronautical Society" had on ex- hibition at the Champ de Mars a similar airship, measuring 134 ft. long, 34 ft. high, and 25 ft. wide, constructed from the design of M. Lennon, a French officer, who was to have ascended with seventeen passengers and set them down in Hyde Park four hours later. So confident were the promoters of the success of this enterprise that one of them took up his residence in Sherrard Street, Golden Square, to be at hand when the airship arrived and supervise the return journey. Unfortu- nately the balloon burst while being filled, and the crowd estimated to exceed 100,000 rushed in and tore it to pieces. A frag- ment of the envelope is preserved in vol. iv. of 'Aeronautica Illustrata' in the Patent Office Library.

The Eagle here illustrated was an enter- prise of the same company, which was now known as " The European Aeronautical Society," and the designer and chief showman as " Count de Lennox." The Mechanics' Magazine (July 18, 1835) pro- vides some interesting measurements. The balloon or gasholder was covered with 2,400 yards of cotton lawn, thoroughly varnished to make it airtight ; its capacity is said to have been 7,000 cubic feet. " The car or packet boat is 75 ft. long and 7 ft. high ; the framework of wood with strong netting all round to prevent any of the crew or passengers from falling out." The vessel was to be propelled or directed to favourable currents of air by four wings, each formed of 80 movable flaps of var- nished lawn. Except an allusion to " the cabin containing the machinery," no in- formation is afforded of the situation and design of the propelling force. The sails at the ends were for steering, or alterna- tively to add to the propelling force by