oration of d Hermocrates, in Thucydides, which he made to the Syracusians when the Athenians invaded them, it may easily be observed.

Of the art of war by sea, I had written a treatise for the lord Henry, prince of Wales; a subject to my knowledge never handled by any man, ancient or modern; but God hath spared me the labour of finishing it by his loss; by the loss of that brave prince, of which, like an eclipse of the sun, we shall find the effects hereafter. Impossible it is to equal words and sorrows, I will therefore leave him in the hands of God that hath him: Cura leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.

But it is now time to return to the beaten Carthaginians, who, by losing their advantage of swift boats, and boarding the Romans, have lost fifty sail of their galleys; as on the other side, their enemies, by commanding the seas, have gotten liberty to sail about the west part of Sicily, where they raised the siege laid unto Segesta by the Carthaginians, and won the town of Macella, with some other places.

SECT. VII.

Divers enterfeuts of war between the Romans and Carthaginians, with variable success. The Romans prepare to invade Afric, and obtain a great victory at sea.

THE victory of Duilius, as it was honoured at Rome with the first naval triumph that was ever seen in that city, so gave it unto the Romans a great encouragement to proceed in their wars by sea; whereby they hoped, not only to get Sicily, but all the other isles between Italy and Afric, beginning with Sardinia, whither soon after they sent a fleet for that purpose. On the contrary side, Amilcar the Carthaginian, lying in Panormus, carefully waited for all occasions that might help to recompense the late misfortune; and being advertised that some quarrel was grown between the Roman soldiers and their auxiliaries, being such as caused them to encamp apart, he sent forth Hanno to set upon them, who, taking them unawares, buried four thoud Thucyd. 1. 6.

sand of them in the place. Now, during the continuance of the land-war in Sicily, Hannibal, who had lately been beaten by sea, but escaped unto Carthage, meaning to make amends for his former error, obtained the trust of a new fleet, wherewith he arrived at Sardinia; the conquest of which island the Romans had entertained for their next enterprise. Now it so fell out that the Romans, crossing the seas from Sicily, arrived in the port where Hannibal with his new fleet anchored. They set upon him unawares, and took the better part of the fleet which he conducted, himself hardly escaping their danger. But it little availed him to have escaped from the Romans: his good friends the Carthaginians were so ill pleased with this his second unfortunate voyage, that they hanged him up for his diligence; for, as it hath been said of old, Non est bis in bello peccare; "In war it is too "much to offend twice."

After this, it was long ere any thing of importance was done by the consuls, till e Panormus was besieged; where,

If we may give credit to antiquities, which Fazellus, a diligent writer, hath left us in his history of Sicily; Panormus, now called Palermo, is one of the first cities that hath been built in all Europe. For whereas Thucydides seems to make it a colony of the Phoenicians, Ranzanus, in libello de Panormo, lib. 6. affirms, that it was first, and long before the time which Thucydides sets down, founded by the Chaldæans and Damascenes. To prove which, he tells us of two inscriptions upon marble, in the Hebrew character, found at Panormus in the time of William the Second, king of Sicily, that were then beheld of all the citizens and other strangers, which being translated into Latin, say as followeth : Vivente Isaac filio Abrahæ, et regnante in Idumæa, atque in valle Damascena, Esau filio Isaac; ingens Hebræorum manus, quibus adjuncti sunt multi Damasceni, atque Phonices, profecti in hanc triangularem insulam, sedes perpetuus locaverunt in hoc amænissimo loco, quem Panormum nominaverunt. In the other marble table are found these

words: Non est alius Deus præter unum Deum; non est alius potens, præter eundem Deum, &c. Hujus turris præfectus est Saphu, filius Eliphar filii Esau, fratris Jacob, filii Isaac, filii Abrahami: et turri quidem ipsi nomen est Baych; sed turri huic proximæ nomen est Pharuh. And this inscription, saith Fazellus, was found entire in the castle Baych, in the year 1534. Now whether these inscriptions were truly as ancient as these men believe they were, I leave every man to his own faith. But that the city was of aged times, it appears by Thucydides, who affirmeth, when the Greeks passed first into Sicily, that then the Phoenicians inhabited Panormus; which certain it is that they did in the first Punic war, to wit, the Carthaginians, who were Phoenicians, from whom the Romans (A. Aquilius and C. Cornelius commanding this army) took it. And when Marcellus besieged Syracuse, it sent him in aid three thousand soldiers. But it was rather confederate than subject to the Romans. For Cicero against Verres, names it among the free cities of Sicily. After Syra

when the Romans had sought in vain to draw the Carthaginians into the field, being unable to force that great city, because of the strong garrison therein bestowed, they departed thence, and took certain inland towns, as Mytistratum, Enna, Camerina, Hippana, and others, between Panormus and Messana. The year following, C. Atilius the consul, who commanded the Roman fleet, discovered a company of the Carthaginian galleys ranging the coast, and, not staying for his whole number, pursued them with ten of his. But he was well beaten for the haste he made, and lost all, save the galley which transported him, wherein himself escaped with great labour. But ere all was done, the rest of Atilius's fleet was gotten up; who, renewing the. fight, recovered from the Carthaginians a double number of theirs, by which the victory remaining doubtful, both challenge it. Now, to try at once which of these two nations. should command the seas, they both prepare all they can. The Romans make a fleet of three hundred and thirty galleys, the Carthaginians of three hundred and fifty, ftriremes, quadriremes, and quinqueremes.

The Romans resolve to transport the war into Afric; the Carthaginians to arrest them on the coast of Sicily. The numbers, with which each of them filled their fleet, was perhaps the greatest that ever fought on the waters. By Polybius's estimation, there were in the Roman galleys an hundred and forty thousand men, and in those of Carthage an hundred and fifty thousand; reckoning one hundred and twenty soldiers, and three hundred rowers to every galley, one with the other. The Roman fleet was divided into four parts, of which the three first made the form of a wedge or

cuse destroyed, it became the first city and regal seat, as well of the Goths and Saracens in that island, as of the emperors of Constantinople; of the Normans, French, and Arragonians; which honour it holds to this day, and is much frequented for the excellent wine which grows about it.

The quinqueremes are galleys wherein every oar hath five men to draw it; the quadriremes had four

to an oar, and the triremes three. Some have thought that the quinqueremes had five ranks of oars, one over another; and the other galleys (ratably) fewer. But had this been so, they must then have had five decks each over other, which hath seldom been seen in ships of a thousand tons; neither could the third, fourth, and fifth ranks have reached unto the water with their oars.

triangle; the two first squadrons making the flanks, and the third squadron the base; the point thereof (wherein were the two consuls as admirals) looking toward the enemy, and the middle space lying empty. Their vessels of carriage were towed by the third squadron. After all, came up the fourth, in form of a crescent, very well manned, but exceeding thin; so that the horns of it enclosed all the third squadron, together with the corners of the first and second. The order of the Carthaginian fleet I cannot conceive by the relation; but, by the manner of the fight afterwards, I conjecture that the front of their fleet was thin, and stretched in a great length, much like to that which the French call combat en haii; a long front of horse, and thin; which form, since the pistol prevailed over the lance, they have changed. Behind this first outstretched front, their battalions were more solid. For Amilcar, admiral of the Carthaginians, had thus ordered them of purpose, (his galleys having the speed of the Romans,) that, when the first fleet of the Romans hasted to break through the first galleys, they should all turn tail, and the Romans pursuing them (as after a victory) disorder themselves, and for eagerness of taking the runaways, leave their other three squadrons far behind them. For so must it needs fall out, seeing that the third squadron towed their horse-boats and victuallers, and the fourth had the rearward of all. According to Amilcar's direction, it succeeded: for when the Romans had charged and broken the thin front of the Carthaginian first fleet, which ran away, they forthwith gave after them with all speed possible, not so much as looking behind them for the second squadron. Hereby the Romans were drawn near unto the body of the Carthaginian fleet led by Amilcar, and by him (at the first) received great loss, till their second squadron came up, which forced Amilcar to betake him to his oars. Hanno also, who commanded the right wing of the Carthaginian fleet, invaded the Roman rearward, and prevailed against them. But Amilcar being beaten off, Marcus Atilius fell back to their succour, and put the Carthaginians to their heels, as not able to sustain both squad

rons. The rear being relieved, the consuls came to the aid of their third battalion, which towed their victuallers, which was also in great danger of being beaten by the Africans; but the consuls, joining their squadrons to it, put the Carthaginians on that part also to running. This victory fell to the Romans, partly by the hardiness of their soldiers, but principally, for that Amilcar, being first beaten, could never after join himself to any of his other squadrons, that remained as yet in fair likelihood of prevailing, so long as they fought upon even terms, and but squadron to squadron. But Amilcar forsaking the fight, thereby left a full fourth part of the Roman fleet unengaged, and ready to give succour to any of the other parts that were oppressed. So as in conclusion the Romans got the honour of the day; for they lost but four and twenty of theirs, whereas the Africans lost thirty that were sunk, and threescore and three that were taken.

Now if Amilcar, who had more galleys than the Romans, had also divided his fleet into four squadrons, (besides those that he ranged in the front, to draw on the enemy's and to engage them,) and that, while he himself fought with one squadron that charged him, all the rest of the enemy's fleet had been at the same time entertained, he had prevailed; but the second squadron, being free, came to the rescue of the first, by which Amilcar was oppressed; and Amilcar being oppressed and scattered, the consuls had good leisure to relieve both their third and fourth squadron, and got the victory.

Charles the Fifth, among other his precepts to Philip the Second, his son, where he adviseth him concerning war against the Turks, tells him, that in all battles between them and the Christians, he should never fail to charge the janizaries in the beginning of the fight, and to engage them at once with the rest. For, saith he, the janizaries, who are always reserved entire in the rear of the battle, and in whom the Turk reposeth his greatest confidence, come up in a gross body when all the troops on both sides are disbanded and in confusion; whereby they carry the victory before