or
quick sailing. After the victory of Actium, which Augustus gained in a
great measure by means of these ships, few were built by the Romans of any
other construction. The other Liburnian vessels were small, for fishing and
short voyages; some of these were made with osiers and covered with hides.
But strength and lightness, and quick sailing, were the qualities by which
the Liburnian ships were chiefly distinguished and characterised.

At what precise period the Romans directed their attention to maritime
affairs we are not accurately informed: that the opinion of Polybius on
this subject is not well founded, is evident from several circumstances. He
says, that before the first Punic war the Romans had no thought of the sea;
that Sicily was the first country, out of Italy, in which they ever landed;
and that, when they went to that island to assist the Mamertines, the
vessels which they employed in that expedition were hired, or borrowed from
the Tarentines, the Locrians, &c. He is correct in his statement that
Sicily was the first country in which the Romans had any footing; but that
he is inaccurate with respect to the period when the Romans first applied
themselves to maritime affairs, will appear from the following facts.

In the first place, the Romans (as we have already shown in our account of
the Carthaginian commerce,) had several treaties with the Carthaginians,
which may properly be called commercial treaties, before the first Punic
war. The earliest treaty, according to Polybius himself, was dated about
250 years before the war; and in this treaty the voyages undertaken by the
Romans on account of trade to Africa, Sardinia, and that part of Sicily at
that time possessed by the Carthaginians, are expressly mentioned and
regulated. The second treaty, about 100 years before the first Punic war,
is not so specific respecting commerce. The third treaty, occasioned by the
invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus, points out a decline in the naval power of
the Romans; for it stipulates, that the Carthaginians should furnish them
with ships, if required, either for trade or war. Secondly, seventy-four
years before the first Punic war, the Romans having subdued the Antiates,
and thus become masters of their fleet, among which were six armed with
beaks, the tribune was ornamented with these beaks, the ships to which they
belonged were burnt, and the others were brought to Rome and laid upon the
place allotted to the building and