[327] The Ukraine and Black Sea boats of the middle ages resembled in most respects, but with little or no improvement, those of more ancient times. They usually had ten or fifteen oars of a side, and rowed faster than the Turkish galleys. They had one mast, which carried an ill-shaped sail, used only in fine weather, as their crews preferred to row when it blew hard, and when, to prevent the waves from washing on board, they formed temporary bulwarks of reeds, which were more conveniently carried than planks. If about to undertake a hostile expedition by sea, it was not uncommon to employ at once from five to six thousand Cossacks skilled in seafaring matters, to construct the necessary number of boats, and as sixty hands could complete one in a fortnight, they could finish at least two hundred of them in a month, well-armed and ready for action. In these frail craft, the hardy mariners of the north frequently crossed the whole extent of the Black Sea, sometimes performing the voyage from the Borysthenes to Anatolia in from thirty-six to forty hours. [328] Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. Strabo, xi. c. 12, notices the same native boats, to which, like Tacitus, he gives the name of “cameræ,” or “house-boats.” They carried, on an average, twenty-five men each. [329] Gibbon, ch. xii. Zosimus, i. p. 66. Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. [330] Ibid. ch. x. Vopiscus, ap. Hist. Aug. Script. pp. 220-242. [331] Gibbon, ch. xii. [332] Cæsar, Bell. Gall. iii. 8. [333] Gibbon, ch. xvii. [334] “He could, perhaps, have pass’d the Hellespont, As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided) Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did.” BYRON, “Don Juan,” cant. ii. 105. [335] Plin. ix. 15. Horat. ii. Sat. v. 44. Ovid, in Halieut. v. 98. [336] Gibbon, ch. xxvi. [337] Gibbon, ch. xvii. [338] Cod. Justinian, bk. ii. tit. i. sec. 3. By this code six per cent. was pronounced to be the ordinary and legal standard of interest; eight was allowed for the convenience of manufacturers and merchants, while twelve was granted to nautical insurance. [339] Theodosian Code, bk. xiii. tit. v. secs. 14, 16, and 18. [340] Book xiii. tit. vi. secs. 5-10. [341] Livy, xxx. 45. Plin. xxxiii. 50. Gibbon, ch. xxxi., quoting from Ammianus Marcellinus. [342] Juvenal, Sat. iii., and passim. [343] About half of a farthing. Horat. i. Sat. iii. 136. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 146. [344] Gibbon, ch. xxvi. [345] Gibbon, ch. xxxii. [346] Procop. Bell. Vandal, 1. [347] Gibbon, c. 40. Procop. Gothic. iv. c. 17. Anced. c. 25: Theoph. Byzant. ap. Photium. [348] _Al Sherki._ [349] Gibbon, vol. ix. ch. 51, p. 425.