banks of oars on each side. The steering was accomplished by two large oars at the stern, and the fighting troops were carried on a deck or platform raised on pillars above the heads of the rowers. [Illustration: FIG. 7.--Portion of a Phoenician galley. About 700 B.C. _From Kouyunjik (Nineveh)._] SHIPBUILDING IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME. In considering the history of the development of shipbuilding, we cannot fail to be struck with the favourable natural conditions which existed in Greece for the improvement of the art. On the east and west the mainland was bordered by inland seas, studded with islands abounding in harbours. Away to the north-east were other enclosed seas, which tempted the enterprise of the early navigators. One of the cities of Greece proper, Corinth, occupied an absolutely unique position for trade and colonization, situated as it was on a narrow isthmus commanding two seas. The long narrow Gulf of Corinth opening into the Mediterranean, and giving access to the Ionian Islands, must have been a veritable nursery of the art of navigation, for here the early traders could sail for long distances, in easy conditions, without losing sight of land. The Gulf of AEgina and the waters of the Archipelago were equally favourable. The instincts of the people were commercial, and their necessities made them colonizers on a vast scale; moreover, they had at their disposal the experience in the arts of navigation, acquired from time immemorial, by the Egyptians and Phoenicians. Nevertheless, with all these circumstances in their favour, the Greeks, at any rate up to the fourth century B.C., appear to have contributed nothing to the improvement of shipbuilding.[8] The Egyptians and Phoenicians both built triremes as early as 600 B.C., but this class of vessel was quite the exception in the Greek fleets which fought at Salamis 120 years later. The earliest naval expedition mentioned in Greek history is that of the allied fleets which transported the armies of Hellas to the siege of Troy about the year 1237 B.C. According to the Greek historians, the vessels used were open boats, decks not having been introduced into Greek vessels till a much later period. The earliest Greek naval battle of which we have any record took place about the year 709 B.C., over 500 years after the expedition to Troy and 1,000 years after the battle depicted in the Temple of Victory at Thebes. It was fought between the Corinthians and their rebellious colonists of Corcyra, now called Corfu. Some of the naval expeditions recorded in Greek history were conceived on a gigantic scale. The joint fleets of Persia and Phoenicia which attacked and conquered the Greek colonies in Ionia consisted of 600 vessels. This expedition took place in the year 496 B.C. Shortly afterwards the Persian commander-in-chief, Mardonius, collected a much larger fleet for the invasion of Greece itself.