"And it had some small launches attached to it, the first of which was one of the light galleys called cercurus, able to hold a weight of three thousand talents; and it was wholly moved by oars. And after that came many galleys and skiffs of about fifteen hundred talents burthen. And the crew also was proportionably numerous; for besides the men who have been already mentioned, there were six hundred more, whose post was at the head of the ship, always watching for the orders of the captain. And there was a tribunal instituted to judge of all offences which might be committed on board the ship, consisting of the captain and the pilot, and the officer of the watch; and they decided in every case according to the laws of the Syracusans. 44. "And they put on board the ship sixty thousand measures of corn, and ten thousand jars of Sicilian salt-fish, and twenty thousand talents weight of wool, and of other cargo twenty thousand talents weight also. And besides all this, there were the provisions necessary for the crew. And Hiero, when he had understood that there was no harbour in Sicily large enough to admit this ship, and, moreover, that some of the harbours were dangerous for any vessel, determined to send it as a present to Alexandria to Ptolemy the king of Egypt. For there was a great dearth of corn in Egypt. And he did so; and the ship came to Alexandria, where it was put in port. And Hiero honoured Archimelus, also, the epigrammatic poet, who wrote an epigram on the ship, with a thousand bushels of wheat, which he also sent at his own expense to the Piræus; and the epigram runs thus-- Who placed this monstrous mass upon the earth; What master led it with untiring cables, How was the deck nail'd to the mighty beams, And with what axe did men the vessel form? Surely it equals Ætna in its height, Or any isle which rises from the sea Where the Ægean wave entwined foams Amid the Cyclades; on either side Its breadth is equal, and its walls alike. Sure 'twas the giants' work, who hoped to reach By such vast ladder to the heights of heaven. Its topmast reaches to the stars; and hides Its mighty bulwarks 'mid the endless clouds. It holds its anchors with untiring cables, Like those with which proud Xerxes bound the strait Which between Sestos and Abydos foams. A deftly carved inscription on the side Shows what strong hand has launch'd it on the deep; It says that Hiero, Hierocles' son, The king of Sicily, pride of Dorian race, Sends it a wealthy messenger of gifts To the Ægean islands; and the God Who rules the sea, great Neptune, convoys it Safe o'er the blue and foaming waves to Greece.