71 ([return])
[ The xixth chapter of the Tactics of Leo, (Meurs. Opera, tom. vi. p. 825-848,) which is given more correct from a manuscript of Gudius, by the laborious Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 372-379,) relates to the Naumachia, or naval war.]
72 ([return])
[ Even of fifteen and sixteen rows of oars, in the navy of Demetrius Poliorcetes. These were for real use: the forty rows of Ptolemy Philadelphus were applied to a floating palace, whose tonnage, according to Dr. Arbuthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c., p. 231-236,) is compared as 4 1/2 to 1 with an English 100 gun ship.]
73 ([return])
[ The Dromones of Leo, &c., are so clearly described with two tier of oars, that I must censure the version of Meursius and Fabricius, who pervert the sense by a blind attachment to the classic appellation of Triremes. The Byzantine historians are sometimes guilty of the same inaccuracy.]
74 ([return])
[ Constantin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil. c. lxi. p. 185. He calmly praises the stratagem; but the sailing round Peloponnesus is described by his terrified fancy as a circumnavigation of a thousand miles.]
75 ([return])
[ The continuator of Theophanes (l. iv. p. 122, 123) names the successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, Mount Argaeus Isamus, Aegilus, the hill of Mamas, Cyrisus, Mocilus, the hill of Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the great palace. He affirms that the news were transmitted in an indivisible moment of time. Miserable amplification, which, by saying too much, says nothing. How much more forcible and instructive would have been the definition of three, or six, or twelve hours!]