In this treaty Rome negociates for the cities of La'tium, as her dependencies, just as Carthage does for her subject colonies.

But in the course of the following century, Rome lost her supremacy over the Latin cities, and being thus nearly excluded from the coast, her navy was ruined.
20.

At the commencement of the first Punic war, the Romans once more began to prepare a fleet, and luckily obtained an excellent model in a Carthaginian ship that had been driven ashore in a storm.21.

The vessels used for war, were either long ships or banked galleys; the former were not much used in the Punic wars, the latter being found more convenient.

The rowers of these sat on banks or benches, rising one above the other, like stairs; and from the number of these benches, the galleys derived their names; that which had three rows of benches was called a _trireme_; that which had four, a _quadrireme_; and that which had five, a _quinquireme_.