[3] See Coronelli, Atlante Veneto, I. 139, 140. Marino Sanudo the Elder, though not using the term trireme, says it was well understood from ancient authors that the Romans employed their rowers three to a bench (p. 59).
[4] “Ad terzarolos” (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, p. 57). The Catalan Worthy, Ramon de Muntaner, indeed constantly denounces the practice of manning all the galleys with terzaruoli, or tersols, as his term is. But his reason is that these thirds-men were taken from the oar when crossbowmen were wanted, to act in that capacity, and as such they were good for nothing; the crossbowmen, he insists, should be men specially enlisted for that service and kept to that. He would have some 10 or 20 per cent. only of the fleet built very light and manned in threes. He does not seem to have contemplated oars three-banked, and crossbowmen besides, as Sanudo does. (See below; and Muntaner, pp. 288, 323, 525, etc.)
In Sanudo we have a glimpse worth noting of the word soldiers advancing towards the modern sense; he expresses a strong preference for soldati (viz. paid soldiers) over crusaders (viz. volunteers), p. 74.
[5] L’Armata Navale, Roma, 1616, pp. 150–151.
[6] See a work to which I am indebted for a good deal of light and information, the Engineer Giovanni Casoni’s Essay: “Dei Navigli Poliremi usati nella Marina dagli Antichi Veneziani,” in “Esercitazioni dell’Ateneo Veneto,” vol. ii. p. 338. This great Quinquereme, as it was styled, is stated to have been struck by a fire-arrow, and blown up, in January 1570.
[7] Pantera, p. 22.
[8] Lazarus Bayfius de Re Navali Veterum, in Gronovii Thesaurus, Ven. 1737, vol. xi. p. 581. This writer also speaks of the Quinquereme mentioned above (p. 577).
[9] Marinus Sanutius, p. 65.
[10] See the woodcuts [opposite] and at [p. 37]; also Pantera, p. 46 (who is here, however, speaking of the great-oared galleys), and Coronelli, i. 140.
[11] Casoni, p. 324. He obtains these particulars from a manuscript work of the 16th century by Cristoforo Canale.