ch, and those of Philoctetes 50 men each. Thucydides
also relates that the earliest Hellenic triremes were built at Corinth,
and that Ameinocles, a Corinthian naval architect, built four ships for
the Samians about 700 B.C.; but triremes did not become common until the
time of the Persian War, except in Sicily and Corcyra (Corfu), in which
states considerable numbers were in use a little time before the war
broke out.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Greek bireme. About 500 B.C.]

Fig. 8 is an illustration of a single-banked Greek galley of the date
about 500 B.C., taken from an Athenian painted vase now in the British
Museum. The vessel was armed with a ram; seventeen oars a-side are
shown. There is no space on the vase to show in detail the whole of the
mast and rigging, but their presence is indicated by lines.

Fig. 9 is a representation of a Greek bireme of about the date 500
B.C.--that is to say, of the period immediately preceding the Persian
War. It is taken from a Greek vase in the

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Fragment of a Greek galley showing absence of
deck. About 550 B.C.]

British Museum, which was found at Vulci in Etruria. It is one of the
very few representations now in existence of ancient Greek biremes. It
gives us far less information than we could wish to have. The vessel has
two banks of oars, those of the upper tier passing over the gunwale, and
those of the lower passing through oar-ports. Twenty oars are shown by
the artist on each side, but this is probably not the exact number used.
Unfortunately the rowers of the lower tier are not shown in position.
The steering was effected by means of two large oars at the stern, after
the manner of those in use in the Egyptian ships previously described.
This is proved by another illustration of a bireme on the same vase, in
which the steering oars are clearly seen. The vessel had a strongly
marked forecastle and a ram fashioned in the shape of a boar's head. It
is a curious fact that Herodotus, in his history (Book III.), mentions
that the Samian ships carried beaks, formed to resemble the head of a
wild boar, and he relates how the AEginetans beat some Samian colonists
in a sea-fight off Crete, and sawed off the boar-head beaks from the
captured galleys, and deposited them in a temple in AEgina. This
sea-fight took place about the same time that the vases were
manufactured, from which Figs. 8 and 9 are copied. There was a single
mast with a very large yard ca