n boats,
fifteen on either side of the vessel. [PLATE XXXI., Fig. 2.]
Penteconters were very similar, the only difference being in the number
of the oars and oarsmen. [PLATE XXXI., Fig. 4.] Both these classes of
vessels seem to have been frequently without sails. Cercuri were light
boats, very long and swift. They are said to have been invented by the
Cyprians, and were always peculiar to Asia.

The transports of the Persians were either for the conveyance of horses
or of food. Horse-transports were large clumsy vessels, constructed
expressly for the service whereon they were used, possessing probably a
special apparatus for the embarkation and disembarkation of the animals
which they were built to carry. Corn-transports seem to have been of a
somewhat lighter character. Probably, they varied very considerably in
their size and burthen, including huge and heavy merchantmen on the one
hand, and a much lighter and smaller craft on the other.

The Persians used their ships of war, not only for naval engagements,
but also for the conveyance of troops and the construction of bridges.
Accustomed to pass the great streams which intersect Western Asia
by bridges of boats, which were permanently established wherever an
unfordable river crossed any of the regular routes connecting the
provinces with the capital, the Persians, when they proceeded to carry
their arms from Asia into Europe, conceived the idea of bridging the
interval between the continents, which did not much exceed the width of
one of the Mesopotamian streams, by constructions similar in principle
and general character to those wherewith long use had made them familiar
in their own country. Ranging a number of vessels side by side, at no
great distance one from another, parallel with the course of the stream,
which ran down the straits, anchoring each vessel stem and stern to keep
it in place, and then laying upon these supports a long wooden platform,
they made a floating bridge of considerable strength, reaching from
the Asiatic to the European coast, on which not only men, but horses,
camels, chariots, and laden carts passed over safely from the one
continent to the other. Only, as the water which they had to cross was
not a river, but an arm of the real salt sea, and might, therefore, in
case of a storm, show a might and fury far beyond a river's power, they
thought it necessary to employ, in lieu of boats, the strongest ships
which they possessed, namely, tri