Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Faselus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

FASE'LUS (φάσηλος). A light craft invented by the Egyptians, supposed to have received its name from some resemblance to the pod of a faselus, or kidney bean. It was made of the papyrus, of wicker-work, and sometimes even of baked earth (fictilis, Juv. Sat. xv. 127.), all of which materials accord with the fragile character ascribed to it by Horace (Od. iii. 2. 28.), and account for the great speed for which it was likewise remarkable. (Catull. 4.) It was constructed of different sizes, and for various purposes; the smaller as a mere row boat (hence styled brevis. Serv. ad Virg. Georg. iv. 289.); the latter being of considerable length (Acro, ad Hor. l. c.), fitted with sails, and employed in warfare and on distant expeditions (Sall. ap. Non. s. v. p. 534. Cic. Att. i. 13.), whence it is mentioned as forming an intermediate class between the navis longa, or war galley, and the navis actuaria, or transport and packet boat. (Appian. Bell. Civ. v. 95.) The illustration (Faselus/1.1), from an engraved gem of the Stosch cabinet, may be regarded as affording the probable type of a faselus of the smaller kind, both on account of its shape, the material (papyrus) of which it is made, and because it is placed under the Egyptian deity Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris.

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  Faselus/1.1