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Headword: *)akrosto/lia
Adler number: alpha,1017
Translated headword: stemposts, sternposts
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
[Meaning] the topmost parts of the ship.[1]
"Bringing round and bending the front parts of the raft gently upward into the shape of a prow, as if [they were] improvising [the] stemposts and beaks of a ship".[2]
And Arrian [writes]: "and the golden sternposts of the imperial ship".[3]
Greek Original:
*)akrosto/lia: ta\ a)/kra th=s nho/s. ta\ de\ e)mpro/sqia th=s sxedi/as h)re/ma pro\s to\ mete/wron e)s prw/ras tu/pon periagago/ntes kai\ u(poka/myantes, w(/sper a)krosto/lia nho\s kai\ proe/mbola e)kmimhsa/menoi. kai\ *)arriano/s: ta/ te a)krosto/lia th=s basili/dos nho\s xrusa=.
Notes:
[1] See already alpha 953. The stem- and sternposts at the extremities of a ship were often fitted with decorative cap-pieces; cf. Casson (86 with n.49).
[2] Agathias, Histories 5.21; again, more briefly, at pi 2385. Unable to penetrate the long wall at the base of the Thracian Chersonese (the present-day Gallipoli Peninsula, Barrington Atlas map 51 grid H3, cf. chi 215), defended by the young Byzantine military leader Germanus in 559 CE, the invading force of Kotrigur Huns built a flotilla of four-man rafts out of bundled sheaves of reeds (cf. kappa 2274) for an amphibious assault on the peninsula's southwest coast; cf. Frendo (157-159). Casson observes (12-13) that reed watercraft were used in the Nile Valley since at least the middle of fourth millenium BCE.
[3] Part of Arrian FGrH 156 F154 (from the Parthica); cf. nu 69.
References:
L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, (Baltimore & London 1971)
J.D. Frendo, trans., Agathias: The Histories, (Berlin 1975)
Keywords: botany; definition; geography; historiography; history; military affairs; science and technology; trade and manufacture
Translated by: Jennifer Benedict on 15 March 2000@07:30:20.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (modified translation; added notes, bibliography, and keywords; cosmetics) on 26 January 2001@07:17:04.
David Whitehead on 26 January 2001@07:22:05.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords) on 5 June 2002@08:32:36.
David Whitehead (modified tr; other cosmetics) on 10 August 2009@05:40:32.
David Whitehead (tweaks) on 1 February 2012@07:26:21.
Catharine Roth (coding) on 24 April 2012@23:31:47.
David Whitehead on 27 May 2013@03:26:44.
David Whitehead on 22 May 2015@10:34:48.
Ronald Allen (expanded n.2, added to bibliography, added cross-references, added keywords, added map reference) on 17 September 2023@15:11:13.
Ronald Allen (tweaked headword and translation after discussion with Managing Editor Catharine Roth) on 17 September 2023@20:29:42.
Ronald Allen (augmented n.2, added cross-reference) on 18 September 2023@18:17:23.
Ronald Allen (expanded n.1 and n.2, rearranged bibliography) on 1 October 2023@11:52:19.
Ronald Allen (tweak n.2) on 21 November 2023@11:43:12.

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