We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel;[1461] Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias,[1462] Semiramis,[1463] and Archemachus, Ægæon. According to Damastes,[1464] the Erythræi[1465] were the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides,[1466] Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis, those with five banks;[1467] and, according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, with fifteen; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty; and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty.[1468] Hippus, the Tyrian, was the first who invented merchant-ships; the Cyrenians, the pinnace; the Phœnicians, the passage-boat; the Rhodians, the skiff; and the Cyprians, the cutter.[1469] We are indebted to the Phœnicians for the first observation of the stars in navigation; the Copæ invented the oar, and the Platæans gave it its broad blade.[1470] Icarus was the person who invented sails,[1471] and Dædalus the mast and yards; the Samians, or else Pericles, the Athenian, transports for horses,[1472] and the Thracians, long covered vessels,[1473]—before which time they used to fight only from the prow or the stern. Pisæus, the Tyrrhenian, added the beak to ships;[1474] Eupalamus, the anchor; Anacharsis, that with two flukes; Pericles, the Athenian, grappling-irons, and hooks like hands;[1475] and Tiphys,[1476] the helm and rudder. Minos was the first who waged war by means of ships; Hyperbius, the son of Mars, the first who killed an animal; and Prometheus, the first who slew the ox.[1477] CHAP. 58. (57.)—THE THINGS ABOUT WHICH MANKIND FIRST OF ALL AGREED. THE ANCIENT LETTERS. There was at the very earliest[1478] period a tacit consent among all nations to adopt the letters now used by the Ionians.[1479] (58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same with the modern Latin,[1480] is proved by the ancient Delphic inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library, having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva; this inscription is as follows: ΝΑΥΣΙΚΡΑΤΗΣ ΑΝΕΘΕΤΟ ΤΗΙ ΔΙΟΣ ΚΟΡΗΙ. [“Nausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus.”][1481] CHAP. 59. (59.)—WHEN BARBERS WERE FIRST EMPLOYED.[1482]