[488] Polybius, I. 16.—Zonaras, VIII. 16 et seq.
[489] We have seen before that Rome, after the capture of Antium (Porto d’Anzo), had already a navy, but she had no galleys of three ranks or five ranks of oars. Nothing, therefore, is more probable than the relation of Titus Livius, who states that the Romans took for a model a Carthaginian quinquireme wrecked on their coast. In spite of the advanced state of science, we have not yet obtained a perfect knowledge of the construction of the ancient galleys, and, even at the present day, the problem will not be completely solved until chance furnishes us with a model.
[490] The Romans employed the triremes of Tarentum, Locri, Elea, and Naples to cross the Strait of Messina. The use of quinquiremes was entirely unknown in Italy.
[491] Polybius, I. 20, 21.
[492] Each vessel carried 300 rowers and 120 soldiers, or 420 men, which makes, for the Carthaginian fleet, 147,000 men, and, for the Roman fleet, 138,600. (Polybius, I. 25 and 26.)
[493] Nearly thirteen millions of francs [£520,000]. (Polybius, I. 62.)
[494] Polybius, I. 36.
[495] Valerius Maximus, V. i. 2.
[496] Titus Livius, Epitome, XIX.
[497] Polybius, III. 10, 27, 28.