A type of ships. "He prepared to enter the Istros[1] again in those of his ships which were double-sterned".[2]
*)amfipru/mnais: ei)=dos ploi/wn. e)/mpalin dielqei=n pareskeu/ase to\n *)/istron e)n tai=s a)mfipru/mnais tw=n new=n.
Same entry in ps.-
Zonaras.
[1] The Greek name for the lower Danube; see OCD(4) p.749, s.v.
Ister.
[2] Part of
Menander Protector fr. 21 Blockley. According to LSJ s.v. (web address 1), "double-sterned" means "with rudder behind and before"; but even if for their "rudder" we understand "pair of steering-oars" (on which see generally e.g. L. Casson,
Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Baltimore 1995) 224-8), this is not how ancient ships were constructed. So the present "double-sterned" vessels were perhaps like the ones which, according to
Polyaenus 3.11.14, the Athenian general Chabrias (
chi 1) used in the mid C4 BCE: with a second pair of steering oars, for rough water.
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