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THE ARMY AND NAVY. 169The structure of the triremes would alone warrant the inference, that a naval force, that a is, squadron destined solelyfor war, and possessed by the state, did not exist in Greecetill after these were invented. But there is in Thucydides 1a passage, which inmy opinion settles this point beyond adoubt" When, after the abolition of monarchies, the citiesbecame more wealthy,the Greeks began to build fleets, andto pay more attention to the sea. The Corinthians were thefirst to change the ships according to our present form ;forin Greece the first triremes were built at Corinth ;and it wasthe ship-builder Aminocles of Corinth, who built for theSaimans four (such) vessels. But it was about three hundred years before the end of this war, 2 that Aminocles cameto the Samians. The oldest naval battle with which we areacquainted, was fought between the Corinthians and theCorcyrseans ;since that time, two hundred and sixty years3have elapsed."This testimony, more important than all the accounts oflater grammarians and compilers, proves that it was in theseventh century that the Grecian cities began to supportfleets. The account of the great historian is made muchclearer by the inquiries respecting Grecian commerce, whichshow that the same period beheld the seeds of Grecian cities,planted on the sea-coast from Asia to Sicily, spring up andflourish in the genial beams of liberty.The year,it is true,is not mentioned, in which the first triremes were built inCorinth ;but the whole connexion shows, that the inventionwas still recent in the age of Aminocles and as the first naval;battle between the Greeks was fought forty years later,it isobvious,, that they were then but beginning to support fleets.But at the same time we must confess that naval architecture, after this first great step,made no further considerable advances before the Macedonian age. Thucydides saysthis expressly for he; observes, that the Corinthians gavethe ships the form which they continued to have in his time.Neither did it at once become a general custom to buildtriremes. Till the Persian wars, the use of the long shipsand those of fifty oars was the most usual ;the Syracusansand Corcyrseans were, about this time, the first to have1Thucyd. i. 13. 2About 700 years B. C.8About 640 years B. C.