When my students were reading authentic Latin literature, I would encourage them, as they worked through a passage, to pay attention to references to people, places, and things, and look them up so that they would have a fuller understanding of what the author was saying. To pass over a reference was an indication of trying to just get through the work and not really engage in the passage. A good example is the passage below from Pliny the Younger's description of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the actions of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, to observe and record this extraordinary event. When the reader gets to the mention of liburnicam, it is too easy to say "Hmm, that must be some sort of boat," and move on. You really don't have any more understanding of it until you get further in the letter and Pliny the Elder changes his mind and orders out the quadriremes. Then you think that a liburnicam must be smaller and that a more substantial vessel is necessary. Let's take a closer look.
https://pompeiitourguide.me/2013/10/21/miseno-cape/
In 79 CE, Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) was in command of the Roman fleet stationed at Misenum, the port located across the Bay of Naples from Mount Vesuvius. As the author of the Naturalis Historia, he would have been very interested in closely observing and experiencing a volcanic eruption, particularly one so close to him. His nephew, Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus), writes:
Magnum propiusque noscendum ut eruditissimo viro visum. Iubet liburnicam aptari; mihi si venire una vellem facit copiam; respondi studere me malle, et forte ipse quod scriberem dederat. 8 Egrediebatur domo; accipit codicillos Rectinae Tasci imminenti periculo exterritae — nam villa eius subiacebat, nec ulla nisi navibus fuga -: ut se tanto discrimini eriperet orabat. 9 Vertit ille consilium et quod studioso animo incohaverat obit maximo. Deducit quadriremes, ascendit ipse non Rectinae modo sed multis — erat enim frequens amoenitas orae — laturus auxilium.
So here is a picture of a liburnica:
https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/boat/
This is not such a small ship and certainly would have served Pliny the Elder's purposes until he changes his mind and his plan.
In English the passage above reads:
"This [the eruption] was a great and rather close thing to be examined, as it seemed to a very learned man. He [Pliny the Elder] orders the liburnica to be made ready; he gives me the opportunity whether I wanted to come with him; I responded that I preferred to study, and by chance he himself had given me something to write. He was setting out from home; he receives a message from Rectina, the wife of Tascus, frightened by the impending danger -- for her villa was lying at the foot [of the mountain], and htere was no escape execpt by ships --: she was begging him to rescue her from such great peril. He changes his plan and what he had begun with a studious mind he finishes with a very great/noble one. He launches the quadriremes, he himself climbs on board, about to bring help not only for Rectina but for many -- for the pleasantness of that coast was popular." (The translation is my own.)
And this is a picture of a quadrireme:
This is certainly a larger ship and much faster with its four banks of oars.
So what does this contribute to the reading of the of the passage about Pliny's intentions? It illustrates that Pliny the Elder was taking a ship probably larger than we imagined, but that the quadrireme is definitely larger and better suited to his decisions to mount a rescue mission. The pictures helps us to imagine the scene better and understand fully the plan.
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