FOOTNOTES:
[325] Much confusion has been made by various writers on the subject of the Goths and Vandals, and, perhaps, by the majority of them, these tribes have been somewhat carelessly classed together. The real fact is, they were two distinct branches of the one great nation of the Suevi. The distinction of Ostro (or Eastern) and Visi (or Western) Goths was made in the third century, when they broke into Dacia. Those from Mecklenburg and Pomerania were called Visi-Goths; those from south Prussia and north-west Poland took the name of Ostro-Goths.
[326] Tacit. De Germanis, c. 43.
[327] The Ukraine and Black Sea boats of the middle ages resembled in most respects, but with little or no improvement, those of more ancient times. They usually had ten or fifteen oars of a side, and rowed faster than the Turkish galleys. They had one mast, which carried an ill-shaped sail, used only in fine weather, as their crews preferred to row when it blew hard, and when, to prevent the waves from washing on board, they formed temporary bulwarks of reeds, which were more conveniently carried than planks. If about to undertake a hostile expedition by sea, it was not uncommon to employ at once from five to six thousand Cossacks skilled in seafaring matters, to construct the necessary number of boats, and as sixty hands could complete one in a fortnight, they could finish at least two hundred of them in a month, well-armed and ready for action. In these frail craft, the hardy mariners of the north frequently crossed the whole extent of the Black Sea, sometimes performing the voyage from the Borysthenes to Anatolia in from thirty-six to forty hours.
[328] Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. Strabo, xi. c. 12, notices the same native boats, to which, like Tacitus, he gives the name of “cameræ,” or “house-boats.” They carried, on an average, twenty-five men each.
[329] Gibbon, ch. xii. Zosimus, i. p. 66. Panegyr. Vet. v. 18.
[330] Ibid. ch. x. Vopiscus, ap. Hist. Aug. Script. pp. 220-242.
[331] Gibbon, ch. xii.
[332] Cæsar, Bell. Gall. iii. 8.
[333] Gibbon, ch. xvii.
“He could, perhaps, have pass’d the Hellespont,
As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided)
Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did.”
Byron, “Don Juan,” cant. ii. 105.
[335] Plin. ix. 15. Horat. ii. Sat. v. 44. Ovid, in Halieut. v. 98.
[336] Gibbon, ch. xxvi.
[337] Gibbon, ch. xvii.
[338] Cod. Justinian, bk. ii. tit. i. sec. 3. By this code six per cent. was pronounced to be the ordinary and legal standard of interest; eight was allowed for the convenience of manufacturers and merchants, while twelve was granted to nautical insurance.
[339] Theodosian Code, bk. xiii. tit. v. secs. 14, 16, and 18.
[340] Book xiii. tit. vi. secs. 5-10.
[341] Livy, xxx. 45. Plin. xxxiii. 50. Gibbon, ch. xxxi., quoting from Ammianus Marcellinus.
[342] Juvenal, Sat. iii., and passim.
[343] About half of a farthing. Horat. i. Sat. iii. 136. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 146.
[344] Gibbon, ch. xxvi.
[345] Gibbon, ch. xxxii.
[346] Procop. Bell. Vandal, 1.
[347] Gibbon, c. 40. Procop. Gothic. iv. c. 17. Anced. c. 25: Theoph. Byzant. ap. Photium.
[348] Al Sherki.
[349] Gibbon, vol. ix. ch. 51, p. 425.
[350] The Greek fire was prepared chiefly from naphtha, with which there was mixed sulphur and pitch, extracted from evergreen firs. The admixture, when ignited, produced a fierce and obstinate flame, which burned with equal vehemence in every direction, and, instead of being extinguished, was nourished and quickened on the application of water. Sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only known applications which could damp its fury; the Greeks styled it appropriately the liquid or maritime fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it was employed either by sea or by land, and with equal effect in battles or in sieges. Sometimes it was poured from the ramparts of a besieged city from large boilers, or launched in red-hot balls of stone or iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax or tow which had been soaked in this inflammable oil. On other occasions it was deposited in fire-ships, and thence often, by some unexplained contrivance, blown through long tubes of copper, which were planted on the bow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming fire. Its composition was jealously concealed, and the Greeks terrified their enemies, not merely by the fire itself, but by the reports currently believed that its knowledge had been revealed, by an angel, to the first and greatest of the Constantines for the special use of the people of the eastern portion of the Roman empire. The secret was kept by them for more than four hundred years.