the same time governor in Panormus, who being advertised of this new seaman's arrival, sent forth one Boodes, a senator of Carthage, with twenty gallies, to entertain him. Boodes, falling upon the consul unawares, took both him and the fleet he commanded. When Hannibal received this good news, together with the Roman gallies and their consul, he grew no less fool-hardy than Cornelius had been. For he, fancying to himself to surprise the rest of the Roman fleet on their own coast, ere they were yet in all points provided, sought them out with a fleet of fifty sail; wherewith, falling among them, he was well beaten, and leaving the greater number of his own behind him, made an hard escape with the rest; for of one hundred and twenty gallies, the Romans under Cornelius had lost but seventeen, so as one hundred and three remained, which were not easily beaten by fifty.

The Romans being advertised of Cornelius's overthrow, make haste to redeem him, but give the charge of their fleet to his colleague Duillius. Duillius, considering that the Roman vessels were heavy and slow, the African gallies having the speed of them, devised a certain engine in the prow of his gallies, whereby they might fasten or grapple themselves with their enemies, when they were (as we call it) board and board, that is, when they brought the gallies sides together. This done, the weightier ships had gotten the advantage, and the Africans lost it. For neither did their swiftness serve them, nor their mariners craft, the vessels wherein both nations fought being open; so that all was to be carried by the advantage of weapon, and valour of the men. Besides this, as the heavier gallies were accidentally likely to crush and crack the sides of the lighter and weaker, so were they, by reason of their breadth, more steady; and those that best kept their feet, could also best use their hands. The example may

be given between one of the long boats of his Majesty's great ships, and a London barge.

Certainly, he that will happily perform a fight at sea, must be skilful in making choice of vessels to fight in; he must believe that there is more belonging to a good man of war upon the waters than great daring; and must know, that there is a great deal of difference between fighting loose or at large, and grapling. The guns of a slow ship pierce as well, and make as great holes as those in a swift. To clap ships together without consideration, belongs rather to a madman than to a man of war; for by such an ignorant bravery was Peter Strossie lost at the Azores, when he fought against the Marquis of Santa Cruz. In like sort had the Lord Charles Howard, admiral of England, been lost in the year 1588, if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools were, that found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards had an army aboard them, and he had none; they had more ships than he had, and of higher building and charging; so that had he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels, he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England. For twenty men upon the defences are equal to an hundred that board and enter; whereas, then, contrariwise, the Spaniards had a hundred for twenty of ours, to defend themselves withal. But our admiral knew his advantage, and held it; which had he not done, he had not been worthy to have held his head. Here to speak in general of a sea-fight, (for particulars are fitter for private hands than for the press,) I say, that a fleet of twenty ships, all good sailors and good ships, have the advantage on the open sea of an hundred as good ships, and of slower sailing. For if the fleet of an hundred sail keep themselves near together in a gross squadron, the twenty ships charging them upon any angle shall force them to give ground, and to fall back upon their own next fellows; of which, so many as entangle are made unserviceable,

or lost. Force them they may easily; because the twenty ships which give themselves scope, after they have given one broadside of artillery, by clapping into the wind, and staying, they may give them the other; and so the twenty ships batter them in pieces with a perpetual volley; whereas those that fight in a troop have no room to turn, and can always use but one and the same beaten side. If the fleet of an hundred sail give themselves any distance, then shall the lesser fleet prevail, either against those that are a-rear and hindmost, or against those, that, by advantage of oversailing their fellows, keep the wind: and if, upon a lee-shore, the ships next the wind be constrained to fall back into their own squadron, then it is all to nothing that the whole fleet must suffer shipwreck, or render itself. That such advantage may be taken upon a fleet of unequal speed, it hath been well enough conceived of old time; as by that oration of Hermocrates in Thucydides, which he made to the Syracusans, when the Athenians invaded them, it may easily be observed.

Of the art of war by sea, I had written a treatise for the Lord Henry, Prince of Wales; a subject, to my knowledge, never handled by any man, ancient or modern; but God hath spared me the labour of finishing it by his loss; by the loss of that brave prince, of which, like an eclipse of the sun, we shall find the effects hereafter., Impossible it is to equal words and sorrows; I will therefore leave him in the hands of God that hath him. Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.

But it is now time to return to the beaten Carthaginians, who, by losing their advantage of swift boats, and boarding the Romans, have lost fifty sail of their gallies; as, on the other side, their enemies, by commanding the seas, have gotten liberty to sail about the west part of Sicily, where they raised the siege laid unto Segesta by the Carthaginians, and won the town of Macella, with some other places.

SECT. VII.

Divers enterfeats of war between the Romans and Carthaginians, with variable success. The Romans prepare to invade Africa, and obtain a great victory

at sea.

THE victory of Duillius, as it was honoured at Rome with the first naval triumph that was ever seen in that city; so gave it unto the Romans a great encouragement to proceed in their wars by sea; whereby they hoped, not only to get Sicily, but all the other isles between Italy and Africa, beginning with Sardinia, whither soon after they sent a fleet for that purpose. On the contrary side, Hamilcar the Carthaginian, lying in Panormus, carefully waited for all occasions that might help to recompense the late misfortune; and being advertised that some quarrel was grown between the Roman soldiers and their auxiliaries, being such as caused them to encamp apart, he sent forth Hanno to set upon them, who taking them unawares, buried four thousand of them in the place. Now during the continuance of the land war in Sicily, Hannibal, who had lately been beaten by sea, but escaped unto Carthage, meaning to make amends for his former error, obtained the trust of a new fleet, wherewith he arrived at Sardinia; the conquest of which island the Romans had entertained for their next enterprize. Now it so fell out, that the Romans crossing the seas from Sicily, arrived in the port where Hannibal with his new fleet anchored. They set upon him unawares, and took the better part of the fleet which he conducted, himself hardly escaping the danger. But it little availed him to have escaped from the Romans. His good friends the Carthaginians were so ill pleased with this his second unfortunate voyage, that they hanged him up for his diligence; for (as it hath been said of old)

Non est bis in bello peccare;' In war it is too much to offend twice.

After this, it was long ere any thing of importance was done by the consuls, till Panormus was besieg ed'; where, when the Romans had sought in vain to draw the Carthaginians into the field, being unable to force that great city, because of the strong garrison therein bestowed, they then departed from thence, and took certain inland towns; as Mytistratum, Enna, Camerina, Hippana, and others, between Panormus and Messina. The year following, C. Attilius the consul, who commanded the Roman fleet, discovered a company of the Carthaginian gallies ranging the coast, and not staying for his whole number, pursued them with ten of his. But he was well beaten for the haste he made, and lost all, save the galley which transported him, wherein himself

1 If we may give credit to antiquities, which Fazellus, a diligent writer, hath left us in his history of Sicily, Panormus, now called Palermo, is one of the first cities that hath been built in all Europe. For whereas Thucydides seems to make it a colony of the Phoenicians, Ranzanus, in libello de Panormo, lib. 6. affirms, that it was first, and long before the time which Thucydides sets down, founded by the Chaldeans and Damascenes. To prove which, he tells us of two inscriptions upon marble, in the Hebrew character, found at Panormus in the time of William II., king of Sicily, that were then beheld of all the citizens and other strangers, which, being translated into Latin, say as followeth : Vivente Isaac filio Abrahæ, et regnante in Idumsea, atque in valle Damascena, Esau fi⚫lio Isaac ; ingens Hebræorum manus, quibus adjuncti sunt multi Damasceni, atque Phoenices, profecti in hanc triangularem insulam, sedes perpetuas locaverunt in hoc amoenissimo loco, quam Panormum nominaverunt.' In the other marble are found these words: Non est alius Deus præter unum Deum; non ⚫ est alius Potens, præter eundum Deum, &c. Hujus turris præfectus est Saphu • filius Eliphaz filii Esau, fratris Jacob filii Isaac, filii Abrahami : et turri quidem ⚫ ipsi nomen est Baych; sed turri huic proximæ nomen est Pharah' And this inscriptior (saith Fazellus) was found entire in the castle of Baych, in the year 1534. N. v, whether these inscriptions were truly as ancient as those men believe they were, I leave every man to his own taith. But that the city was of aged times, it appears by Thucydides, who affirmeth, when the Greeks past first into Sicily, that then the Phoenicians inhabited Panormus; which certain it is they did in the first Punic war; to wit, the Carthaginians, who were Phoenicians, from whom the Romans (A. Aquilius and C. Cornelius,) commanding this army, took it. And when Marcellus besieged Syracuse, it sent him in aid three thousand soldiers. But it was rather confederate than subject to the Romans. For Cicero (against Verres,) names it among the free cities of Sicily. After Syracuse was dstroyed, it became the first city and regal seat, as well of the Goths and Saracens in that island, as of the emperors of Constantinople, of the Normans, French, and Arragonians; which honour it holds to this day, and is much fre quented for the excellent wine which grows about it.