CALIGULA’S GALLEYS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 September 1924, Page 8

CALIGULA’S GALLEYS.

TREASURES IN LAKE BED. A fresh attempt is about to be made to raise the remains of tile two great Roman galleys that lie at the bottom of Lake- Nemi, the most picturesque little sheet of water in the heart of the Alban hills, haunted for ever by the memory of the famous sanctuary and grove of Diana that once stood on its banks and the grim mystery of the rites there celebrated (says a Rome correspondent of the London Observer). The galleys, which were floating ideasure palaces of the type known as thafamegos, were built ancl launched on the lake by Caligula to form an occasional pleasant refuge, from his strenuous life of crime in Rome. They were house-boats beyond our dreams, encrusted Avitli marble, ornamented with precious metal and scented woods and adorned with statuary; the sails were of the finest linen, and the hangings were woven with silver and gold. After the death of Caligula the galleys were apparently left to their fate. As time went on the timbers rotted aAvay, Avater got into the holds, and the Aujssels finally heeled over and sank to the bottom of the Jake, where their dark outlines can be faintly seen on very clear, still days. These sunken galleys haA T e ahvays had a special fascination for adA'entiirous minds. Over a hundred books and pamphlets have been Avritten about them, and naval architects and engineers haA-e made Auirious attempts to hoist them up to the sufaee by the help of strange machines Avhieh have invariably gh r en Avay at the critical moment. The last attack on the Nemi galleys Avas made by divers in 1895, under the direction of the Ministry of Public Instruction. All kinds of curious relics Avere brought up, including some beautifully modelled bronze heads of animals, but the galleys remained immovable embedded in mud and stones and clinging roots of aquatic plants. The new scheme — the only one that has a chance of success —is to dra-AV off the AA'ater of the lake until the vessels are exposed to vieAV.

The process will he difficult and costly, and Senator Corrado Ricci, until lately Director-General of Pine Arts, strongly urges that it should not be attempted until the prose and coiis have been Avell taken into consideration and there is a reasonable prospect of carrying it through. Apart from all the valuable and interesting treasures that Avill certainly be found in the bed of the lake, there will be the satisfaction of setting eyes, after nineteen centuries, on a genuine galley of Imperial Rome,