The inside had in it three galleries or corridors, the lowest of which led to the hold by a flight of stairs, the second to apartments, and the first to soldiers' lodgings. approached. The whole ship was surrounded with a rampart of iron to keep off those who should attempt to board it. All around were iron grapplings, (corvi,) which being thrown by machines, grappled the vessels of the enemy, and threw them close to the ship, from whence it was easy to destroy them. On each of the sides were sixty young men completely armed, and as many about the masts, and at the machines for throwing stones. Though the hold of this ship was extremely deep, one man sufficed for clearing it of all water, with a machine made in the nature of a screw, invented by On the right and left side of the middle gallery, Archimedes. An Athenian poet of that name made there were apartments to the number of thirty; in an epigram upon this superb vessel, for which he was each of which were four beds for men. The apart-well paid. Hiero sent him a thousand medimni of ment for the officers and seamen had fifteen beds, and three great rooms for eating; the last of which, that was at the stern, served for a kitchen. All the floors of these apartments were inlaid with small stones of different colors, representing stories taken from the Iliad of Homer. The ceiling, windows, and all the other parts, were finished with wonderful art, and embellished with all kinds of ornaments. In the uppermost gallery there was a gymnasium, or place of exercise, and walks proportionate to the magnitude of the ship. In them were gardens and plants of all kinds, disposed in wonderful order. Pipes, some of hardened clay, and others of lead, conveyed water all round to refresh them. There were also arbors of ivy and vines, that had their roots in great vessels filled with earth. These vessels were watered in the same manner as the gardens. The arbors served to shade the walks. After these came the apartment of Venus, with three beds. This was floored with agates and other precious stones, the finest that could be found in the island. The walls and roof were of cypress-wood. The windows were adorned with ivory, paintings, and small statues. In another apartment was a library, at the top of which, on the outside, was fixed a sundial. There was also an apartment with three beds, for a bath, in which were three great brazen coppers, and a bathing-vessel, made of a single stone of various colors. This vessel contained two hundred and fifty quarts. At the ship's head was a great reservoir of water, which held a hundred thousand quarts. All round the ship, on the outside, were Atlases of six cubits, or nine feet, in height, which supported the sides of the ship; these Atlases were at equal distances from each other. The ship was adorned on all sides with paintings, and had eight towers proportioned to its size: two at the head, two at the stern, and four in the middle, of equal dimensions. Upon these towers were parapets, from which stones might be discharged upon the ships of an enemy that should approach too near. Each tower was guarded by four young men completely armed, and two archers. The inside of them was filled with stones and arrows. Upon the side of the vessel, well strengthened with planks, was a kind of rampart, on which was an engine to discharge stones, made by Archimedes: it threw a stone three hundred weight, and an arrow of twelve eubits (eighteen feet) the distance of a stadium, or a hundred and twenty-five paces from it. The ship had three masts, at each of which were two machines to discharge stones. There also were the hooks and masses of lead to throw upon such as i Athen I. v. p, 206-209. VOL. II. corn as a reward, and caused them to be carried to the port of Piræus. The medimnus, according to Father Montfauçon, is a measure that contains six bushels. This epigram is come down to us. The value of verse was known at that time in Syracuse. Hiero having found that there was no port in Sicily capable of containing this vessel, except some where it could not lie at anchor without danger, resolved to make a present of it to king Ptolemy, and sent it to Alexandria. There was at that time a great dearth of corn throughout all Egypt. Several other transports of less burden attended this great ship. Three hundred thousand quarters of corn were put on board them, with ten thousand great earthen jars of salted fish, twenty thousand quintals (or two millions of pounds) of salt meat, twenty thousand bundles of different clothes, without including the provisions for the ships' crews and officers. To avoid too much prolixity, I have retrenched some part of the description which Athenæus has left us of this great ship. I could have wished, that, to have given us a better idea of it, he had mentioned the exact dimensions of it. Had he added a word upon the benches of oars, it would have cleared up and determined a question, which, without it, must for ever remain doubtful and obscure. Hiero's fidelity was put to a very severe trial after the bloody defeat of the Romans in the battle of Canna, which was followed by an almost universal defection of their A. M. 3788. Ant J. C. 216. allies. But even the laying waste of his dominions by the Carthaginian troops, which their fleet had landed in Sicily, was not capable of shaking his resolution. He was only afflicted to see the contagion had spread even to his own family. He had a son named Ge. lon, who married Nereis the daughter of Pyrrhus, by whom he had several children, and amongst others Hieronymus, of whom we shall soon speak. Gelon, despising his father's great age, and setting no value on the alliance of the Romans after their last disgrace at Cannæ, had declared openly for the Carthaginians. He had already armed the multitude, and solicited the allies of Syracuse to join him; and would perhaps have occasioned great trouble in Sicily, if his sudden and unexpected death had not intervened. happened so opportunely, that his father was suspected of having promoted it. He did not A. M. 3798, survive his son long, and died at the age of fourscore and ten years infinitely regretted by his people, after having reigned fiftyfour years. Ant. J. C. 215. It y There is reason to believe this was Ptolemy Philadelphus w Liv. 1. xxiii n.30. EE of Archimedes, which was reckoned one of the most famous structures of antiquity. It was a whole year in building. Hiero passed whole days amongst the workmen, to animate them by his presence. This ship had twenty benches of oars. The enormous pile was fastened together on all sides with huge nails of copper, which weighed each ten pounds and upwards. The inside had in it three galleries or corridors, the lowest of which led to the hold by a flight of stairs, the second to apartments, and the first to soldiers' lodgings. On the right and left side of the middle gallery, there were apartments to the number of thirty; in each of which were four beds for men. The apartment for the officers and seamen had fifteen beds, and three great rooms for eating; the last of which, that was at the stern, served for a kitchen. All the floors of these apartments were inlaid with small stones of different colors, representing stories taken from the Iliad of Homer. The ceiling, windows, and all the other parts, were finished with wonderful art, and embellished with all kinds of ornaments. In the uppermost gallery there was a gymnasium, or place of exercise, and walks proportionate to the magnitude of the ship. In them were gardens and plants of all kinds, disposed in wonderful order. Pipes, some of hardened clay, and others of lead, conveyed water all round to refresh them. There were also arbors of ivy and vines, that had their roots in great vessels filled with earth. These vessels were watered in the same manner as the gardens. The arbors served to shade the walks. After these came the apartment of Venus, with three beds. This was floored with agates and other precious stones, the finest that could be found in the island. The walls and roof were of cypress-wood. The windows were adorned with ivory, paintings, and small statues. In another apartment was a library, at the top of which, on the outside, was fixed a sundial. There was also an apartment with three beds, for a bath, in which were three great brazen coppers, and a bathing-vessel, made of a single stone of various colors. This vessel contained two hundred and fifty quarts. At the ship's head was a great reservoir of water, which held a hundred thousand quarts. All round the ship, on the outside, were Atlases of six cubits, or nine feet, in height, which supported the sides of the ship; these Atlases were at equal❘ distances from each other. The ship was adorned on all sides with paintings, and had eight towers proportioned to its size: two at the head, two at the stern, and four in the middle, of equal dimensions. Upon these towers were parapets, from which stones might be discharged upon the ships of an enemy that should approach too near. Each tower was guarded by four young men completely armed, and two archers. The inside of them was filled with stones and arrows. Upon the side of the vessel, well strengthened with planks, was a kind of rampart, on which was an engine to discharge stones, made by Archimedes: it threw a stone three hundred weight, and an arrow of twelve cubits (eighteen feet) the distance of a stadium, or a hundred and twenty-five paces from it. The ship had three masts, at each of which were two machines to discharge stones. There also were the hooks and masses of lead to throw upon such as Athen 1. v. p, 206-209. VOL. II. approached. The whole ship was surrounded with a rampart of iron to keep off those who should attempt to board it. All around were iron grapplings, (corvi,) which being thrown by machines, grappled the vessels of the enemy, and threw them close to the ship, from whence it was easy to destroy them. On each of the sides were sixty young men completely armed, and as many about the masts, and at the machines for throwing stones. Though the hold of this ship was extremely deep, one man sufficed for clearing it of all water, with a machine made in the nature of a screw, invented by Archimedes. An Athenian poet of that name made an epigram upon this superb vessel, for which he was well paid. Hiero sent him a thousand medimni of corn as a reward, and caused them to be carried to the port of Piræus. The medimnus, according to Father Montfauçon, is a measure that contains six bushels. This epigram is come down to us. The value of verse was known at that time in Syracuse. Hiero having found that there was no port in Sicily capable of containing this vessel, except some where it could not lie at anchor without danger, resolved to make a present of it to king Ptolemy, and sent it to Alexandria. There was at that time a great dearth of corn throughout all Egypt. Several other transports of less burden attended this great ship. Three hundred thousand quarters of corn were put on board them, with ten thousand great earthen jars of salted fish, twenty thousand quintals (or two millions of pounds) of salt meat, twenty thousand bundles of different clothes, without including the provisions for the ships' crews and officers. To avoid too much prolixity, I have retrenched some part of the description which Athenæus has left us of this great ship. I could have wished, that, to have given us a better idea of it, he had mentioned the exact dimensions of it. Had he added a word upon the benches of oars, it would have cleared up and determined a question, which, without it, must for ever remain doubtful and obscure. Hiero's fidelity was put to a very severe trial after the bloody defeat of the Romans in the battle of Cannæ, which was followed by an almost universal defection of their A. M. 3788. Ant J. C. 216. allies. But even the laying waste of his dominions by the Carthaginian troops, which their fleet had landed in Sicily, was not capable of shaking his resolution. He was only afflicted to see the contagion had spread even to his own family." He had a son named Ge lon, who married Nereis the daughter of Pyrrhus, by whom he had several children, and amongst others Hieronymus, of whom we shall soon speak. Gelon, despising his father's great age, and setting no value on the alliance of the Romans after their last disgrace at Cannæ, had declared openly for the Carthaginians. He had already armed the multitude, and solicited the allies of Syracuse to join him; and would perhaps have occasioned great trouble in Sicily, if his sudden and unexpected death had not intervened. happened so opportunely, that his father was suspected of having promoted it. He did not survive his son long, and died at the age of fourscore and ten years infinitely his people, after having reigned fifty A. M. 3798, Ant. J. C. 215, regretted by four years. y It There is reason to believe this was Ptolemy Philadelphus ARTICLE II. SECT. I. Hieronymus, grandson of Hiero, succeeds him, and causes him to be regretted by his vices and cruelty. He is killed in a conspiracy. Barbarous murder of the princesses. Hippocrates and Epicydes possess themselves of the grovernment of Syracuse, and declare for the Carthaginians as Hieronymus had done. The death of Hiero occasioned great revolutions in Sicily. The kingdom was fallen into the hands of Hieronymus his grandson, a young prince incapable of making a wise use of his independence, and far from possessing strength to resist the seducing allurements of sovereign power. Hiero's apprehensions, that the flourishing condition in which he left his kingdom would soon change under an infant king, suggested to him the thought and desire of restoring their liberty to the Syracusans. But his two daughters opposed that design with all their influence; from the hope, that the young prince would have only the title of king, and that they should have all the authority, in conjunction with their husbands, Andranodorus and Zoippus, who were to hold the first rank amongst his guardians. It was not easy for an old man of ninety to hold out against the caresses and arts of those two women, who besieged him day and night, to preserve the freedom of his mind in the midst of their pressing and assiduous insinuations, and to sacrifice with courage the interests of his family to those of the public. To prevent as far as possible the evils he foresaw, he appointed him fifteen guardians, who were to form his council; and earnestly desired them, at his death, never to depart from the alliance with the Romans, to which he had inviolably adhered for fifty years, and to teach the young prince to tread in his steps, and to follow the principles in which he had been edu cated till then. son, had ever distinguished themselves from the other citizens by their habits, or any outward ornaments, Hieronymus was presently seen in a purple robe, with a diadem on his head, and surrounded by a troop of armed guards. Sometimes he affected to imitate Dionysius, the Tyrant, in coming out of his palace in a chariot drawn by four white horses. All the rest of his conduct was suitable to this equipage: a visible contempt for all the world, haughtiness and disdain in hearing, and affectation of saying disoblig. ing things, so difficult of access, that not only stang ers, but even his guardians, could scarce approach him; a refinement of taste in discovering new me thods of excess; a cruelty so enormous, as to extin guish all sense of humanity in him; this odious disposition of the young king terrified the people to such a degree, that even some of his guardians, to escape his cruelty, either put themselves to death, or condemned themselves to voluntary banishment. Only three men, Andranodorus and Zoippus, both Hiero's sons-in-law, and Thraso, had a great freedom of access to the young king. He paid little more notice to them than to others; but as the two first openly declared for the Carthaginians, and the latter for the Romans, that difference of sentiments, and very warm disputes, which were frequently the cosequence of it, drew upon them that prince's at tention. About this time a conspiracy against the life of Hieronymus happened to be discovered. One of the principal conspirators, named Theodotus, was accused. Being put to the torture, he confessed the crime a far as it regarded himself; but all the violence of the most cruel torments could not make him betray his accomplices. At length, as if no longer able to support the pains inflicted on him, he accused the king's best friends, though innocent, amongst whom be The king dying after these arrangements, the guar- named Thraso, as the ringleader of the whole enter dians whom he had appointed for his grandson imme-prise; adding, that they should never have engaged diately summoned the assembly, presented the young prince to the people, and caused the will to be read. A small number of people, expressly placed to applaud it, clapped their hands, and raised acclamations of joy. All the rest in a consternation equal to that of a family who have lately lost a good father, kept a mournful silence, which sufficiently expressed their grief for their recent loss, and their apprehension of what was to come. His funeral was afterwards solemnized, and more honored by the sorrow and tears of his subjects, than the care and regard of his relations for his memory. Andranodorus's first care was to remove all the other guardians, by telling them roundly, the prince was of age to govern for himself. So He was at that time near fifteen years old. that Andranodorus, being the first to renounce the guardianship held by him in common with many colleagues, united in his own person all their power. The wisest arrangements made by princes at their deaths, are often little regarded, and seldom executed afterwards. The best and most moderate prince in the world, ucceeding a king so well beloved by his subjects, as Hiero had been, would have found it very difficult to console them for the loss they had sustained. But Hieronymus, as if he strove by his vices to make him still more regretted, no sooner ascended the throne, than he made the people sensible how much all things were altered. While neither Hiero, nor Gelon his in it, if a man of his credit had not been at their head. The zeal he had always expressed for the Roman interests rendered the evidence probable, and he was accordingly put to death. Not one of the accomplices, during their companion's being tortured, either fled or concealed himself, so much they relied upon the fidelity of Theodotus, and such was his for titude to keep the secret inviolable. The death of Thraso, who was the sole support of the alliance with the Romans, left the field open to the partisans of Carthage. Hieronymus despatebed ambassadors to Hannibal, who sent back a young Carthaginian officer, of illustrious birth, named Hannibal, with Hippocrates and Epicydes, natives of Carthage, but descended from the Syracusans by their father. After the treaty with Hieronymus was con eluded, the young officer returned to his general; the two others continued with the king by Hannibal's permission. The conditions of the treaty were, that after having driven the Romans out of Sicily, of which they fully assured themselves, the river Himera, which also divides the island, should be the boundary of their respective dominions. Hieronymus, puffed up by the praises of his flatterers, even demanded some time after, that all Sicily should be given up to him, leaving the Carthaginians Italy for their part The proposal appeared idle and rash; but Hannibal gave very little attention to it, having no other view at that time than of drawing off the young king from the party of the Romans. |