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Roman Navy

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The Roman Navy (Latin: Classis, lit. "fleet") comprised the naval forces of the Roman state. Unlike modern naval forces, it never existed as an autonomous service, but operated as an adjunct to the Roman army. Founded in ca. 311 BC, and massively expanded course of the First Punic War, the Roman navy played a vital role in the early stages of the Roman Republic's ascension to hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea, especially in the wars against Carthage, but was gradually reduced in size and significance, undertaking mainly policing duties, under the Empire. In the 4th century, the bulk of the Roman fleet was moved to the Eastern Roman Empire, and continued to serve as the Byzantine navy.

History

Early Republic

The first mention of a Roman fleet is in ca. 311 BC, after the conquest of Campania, when two new officials, the duumviri navales, were appointed on an ad hoc basis and tasked with the maintenance of a fleet. As a result, the Republic acquired its first fleet, consisting of 20 ships, most likely triremes. Nevertheless, prior to the First Punic War the main task of this fleet was patrolling along the Italian coast and rivers, protecting seaborne trade from piracy. Whenever larger tasks had to be undertaken, such as the naval blockade of a besieged city, the Romans called on the allied Greek cities of southern Italy, the socii navales, to provide ships and men.

With the outbreak of hostilities with Carthage however, the engagements at sea became decisive, and the Romans were at first rendered helpless against the nautically experienced Carthaginians, who were much better equipped and trained. According to Polybius, the Romans seized a shipwrecked Carthaginian warship, and used it as a blueprint for a massive naval build-up. The new fleets were commanded by the annually elected Roman magistrates, but naval expertise was provided by the lower officers, who continued to be provided by the socii, mostly Greeks. This practice was continued until well into the Empire, something also attested by the direct adoption of numerous Greek naval terms.

Despite the buildup, the Roman crews remained inferior in naval experience to the Carthaginians, and could not hope to match them in naval tactics, which required great maneuverability. They therefore developed a novel weapon which transformed sea warfare to their advantage. They equipped their ships with the corvus, possibly developed earlier by the Syracusians against the Athenians. This was a long plank with a spike for hooking onto enemy ships. Using it as a boarding bridge, marines were able to board an enemy ship, transforming sea combat into a version of land combat, where they had the upper hand. However, it is believed that the corvus' weight made the ships unstable, and could capsize a ship in rough seas.

Although the first sea engagement, the Battle of the Lipari Islands in 260 BC, was a defeat for Rome, the forces involved were relatively small. The fledgling Roman navy won its first major engagement later that year at the Battle of Mylae. Through the course of the war, Rome continued to win victories at sea and gained naval experience, although it also suffered a number of catastrophic losses due to storms. Their string of successes allowed Rome to push the war further across the sea to Carthage itself.

At the beginning of the Second Punic War (218 BC - 202 BC), the balance of naval power in the Western Mediterranean had shifted from Carthage to Rome. This caused Hannibal, Carthage's great general, to shift the strategy, bringing the war to the Italian peninsula. Unlike the first war, the navy played little role on either side in this war or in the Third Punic War, except for carrying supplies and reinforcements. Long before Rome conquered Illyria in 168 BC and established the region as a province, the First Illyrian War in 229 BC marks the date which the Roman Navy first sailed across the Adriatic Sea and began her eastwards expansion. As Rome became increasingly involved in the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Roman fleet played again an important role. By the end of the 2nd century BC, Roman control over all of what was later to be dubbed mare nostrum ("our sea") had been established.

Late Republic

After Rome's eventual victory over Carthage, there was no other sea power left to contend with Rome's marine might, and the Roman Navy was largely disbanded. In the absence of a strong naval presence, piracy flourished throughout the Mediterranean, especially from Cilicia, which posed a growing threat for the Roman economy. Periodically, expeditions would be organized to deal with the pirates, but they had only localised effects. Finally, in 67 BC the Senate authorised Pompey to move against them. In a massive and concerted campaign, Pompey cleared the seas from pirates. Afterwards, the fleet was reduced again to policing duties against intermittent piracy. The last major campaign of the Roman navy in the Mediterranean until the 3rd century would be in the civil wars that ended the Republic.

As the Roman Republic unraveled, competing Roman generals once again built up their naval might. Sextus Pompeius, in his conflict with Octavian, had been given command of the Italian fleet by the Senate in 43 BC, and controlled the politically crucial supply of grain from Sicily to Rome. After suffering a defeat from Sextus in 42 BC, Octavian initiated massive naval armaments, aided by his closest associate, Marcus Agrippa. Ships were built at Ravenna and Ostia, the new harbour of Portus Julius built, and soldiers and rowers levied, including over 20,000 manumitted slaves.. Agrippa also introduced new naval armaments, such as a catapult-fired grappling hook (harpago) and towers at either end of the ships. Finally, Octavian and Agrippa defeated Sextus in the Battle of Naulochus in 36 BC, finally putting an end to all Pompeian resistance. Octavian's power was further cemented against the combined fleets of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, where Antony had assembled 230 ships against Octavian's 400 ships. This last naval battle of the Roman Republic definitively established Octavian as the sole ruler over Rome and the Mediterranean world. After his victory, he formalised the Fleet's structure, establishing several key harbours in the Mediterranean (see below). The now fully professional navy had its main duties consist of protecting against piracy, escorting troops and patrolling the rivers frontiers of Europe.

Operations under Augustus

Under Augustus and after the conquest of Egypt there were increasing demands from the Roman economy to extend the trade lanes to India. The Arabian control of all sea routes to India was an obstacle. One of the first naval operations under princeps Augustus was therefore the preparation for a campaign on the Arabian peninsula. Aelius Gallus, the prefect of Egypt ordered the construction of 130 transports and subsequently carried 10,000 soldiers to Arabia. But the following march through the desert towards Yemen failed and the plans for control of the Arabian peninsula had to be abandoned.

At the other end of the Empire, in Germania, the navy played an important role in the supply and transport of the legions. In 15 BC an independent fleet was installed at the Lake Constance. Later, the generals Drusus and Tiberius used the Navy extensively, when they tried to extend the Roman frontier to the Elbe. In 12 BC Drusus ordered the construction of a fleet of 1,000 ships and sailed them along the Rhine into the North Sea. The Frisians and Chauci had nothing to oppose the superior numbers, tactics and technology of the Romans. When these entered the river mouths of Weser and Ems, the local tribes had to surrender.

In 5 BC the Roman knowledge concerning the North and Baltic Sea was fairly extended during a campaign by Tiberius, reaching as far as the Elbe: Plinius describes how Roman naval formations came past Heligoland and set sail to the north-eastern coast of Denmark, and Augustus himself boasts in his Res Gestae: "My fleet sailed from the mouth of the Rhine eastward as far as the lands of the Cimbri to which, up to that time, no Roman had ever penetrated either by land or by sea...". The multiple naval operations north of Germania had to be abandoned after the battle of the Teutoburg Forest in the year 9 AD.

Julio-Claudian dynasty

In the years 15 and 16, Germanicus carried out several fleet operations along the rivers Rhine and Ems, without permanent results due to grim Germanic resistance and a disastrous storm. By 28, the Romans lost further control of the Rhine mouth in a succession of Frisian insurgencies. From 37 to 85, the Roman navy played an important role in the Roman conquest of Britain. Especially the classis Germanica rendered outstanding services in multitudinous landing operations. In 46 a naval expedition made a push deep into the Black Sea region and even travelled on the Tanais. By 57 an expeditionary corps reached Chersonesos (see Charax, Crimea).

It seems that under Nero the navy obtained strategically important positions for trading with India; but there was no known fleet in the Red Sea. Possibly, parts of the Alexandrian fleet were operating as escorts for the Indian trade. In the Jewish revolt, from 66 to 70, the Romans were forced to fight Jewish ships, operating from a harbour in the area of modern Tel Aviv, on Israel's Mediterranean coast. In the meantime several flotilla engagements on the Sea of Galilee took place.

Flavian, Antonine and Severan dynasties

During the Batavian rebellion of Gaius Julius Civilis (69-70), the rebels got hold of a squadron of the Rhine fleet by treachery, but could not employ it in a decisive strike against the rival fleet. The remaining ships returned to Imperial authority, when Civilis was defeated in open battle.

In the years 82 to 85, the Romans launched a campaign against the Caledonians in modern Scotland. In this context the Roman navy significantly escalated activities on the eastern Scottish coast. Simultaneously multiple expeditions and reconnaissance trips were launched. During these the Romans would capture the Orkney Islands for a short period of time and obtained information about the Shetland Islands. Supposedly the Romans also landed on the Hebrides and in Ireland.

Under the Five Good Emperors the navy operated mainly on the rivers; so it played an important role during Trajan's conquest of Dacia and temporarily an independent fleet for the Euphrates and Tigris rivers was founded. Also during the wars against the Marcomanni confederation under Marcus Aurelius several combats took place on the Danube and the Tisza.

Under the aegis of the Severan dynasty, the only known military operations of the navy were carried out under Septimius Severus, using naval assistance on his campaigns along the Euphrates and Tigris, as well as in Scotland. Thereby Roman ships reached inter alia the Persian Gulf and the top of the British Isles.

Third century crisis

Under the barracks emperors, the navy made it through a major crisis, when, during the rule of Trebonianus Gallus, for the first time Germanic tribes built up their own powerful fleet in the Black Sea. Via two surprise attacks (256) on Roman naval bases in the Caucasus and near the Danube, numerous ships fell into the hands of the Germans, whereupon the raids were extended as far as the Aegean Sea; Byzantium, Athens, Sparta and other towns were plundered and the responsible provincial fleets were heavily debilitated. It was not until the attackers made a tactical error, that their onrush could be stopped. In 268 another, much fiercer Germanic attack took place. Part of the invading fleet attacked the Mediterranean islands of Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus, while the other part targeted the Greek mainland. Once again the Romans had nothing to withstand against this attack. Only when the Germanic force set off for the interior could Claudius Gothicus defeat them.

In 286 the Roman Empire faced again a great danger when the commander of the British Fleet, Carausius, rose up and seceded with Britannia and parts of the northern Gallic coast. With a single blow Roman control of the channel and the North Sea was lost, and emperor Maximinus was forced to create a completely new Northern Fleet, but in lack of training it was almost immediately destroyed in a storm. Only under Caesar Constantius Chlorus was the navy again able to deliver troops to Britannia. By a concentric attack on Londinium the insurgent province was retaken. The 6th century administrator and writer John Lydus calculated the strength of the Roman fleets at 45,562 men under Diocletian and the tetrarchs.

Late Antiquity

In 330 both main fleets were stationed in Constantinople. Classic naval battles were now a rare case. Documents tell of the victory of Crispus over the fleet of Licinius in 324, the destruction of the boats under Gainas in 400 and naval operations in the struggle with Geiseric in the 5th century. The Roman fleets suffered defeats against the powerful Vandal fleet in 460 and 468, under the emperors Majorian and Anthemius. When the Völkerwanderung struck with full force on the Roman borders, the endeavors of the navy could hardly change a thing. Until the breakdown of the Western Roman Empire in 476 the Roman warships were solely employed to evacuate Roman citizens out of troublespots. The navy stationed in the Eastern Empire became the cadre for the Byzantine navy. Under the rule of Justinian I triremes were still in use, although mainly dromons were employed, Constantinople was itself protected by a fleet of liburnians.

Timeline of major events

Admirals

Organisation

Recruitment and service

A ship's crew, regardless of its size, was organised as a centuria. Among the crew were usually also a number of principales (junior officers) and immunes (specialists exempt from certain duties), some of which were identical to those of the army auxiliaries and some of which (mostly of Greek provenance) were peculiar to the fleet. Each ship was commanded by a trierarchus, while squadrons were put under a nauarchus. These were professional officers, who had a status equal to an auxiliary centurion (and were thus sometimes called centuriones classiarii). Command of a fleet was given to an equestrian prefect (praefectus classis), with the fleets of Ravenna and Misenum being the most prestigious appointments. The prefects were political appointees, and although they were usually promoted from command of army auxiliary units, their experience in naval matters was minimal, forcing them to rely on their professional subordinates.

Crewmen could sign on as marines, rowers/seamen, craftsmen and various other jobs, though all personnel serving in the imperial fleet were classed as soldiers (milites), regardless of their function. Though the fleet had its own marines, these troops were used for boarding enemy vessels rather than amphibious assaults. The status and rank structure of the sailors and marines of the Roman navy were somewhat similar to that of the auxiliary soldiers serving in the army, and received a similar salary.

Despite popular perception, the Roman fleet relied throughout its existence on rowers of free status, and galley slaves were usually not put at the oars, except in times of pressing manpower demands or extreme emergency. In Imperial times, non-citizen freeborn provincials (peregrini) and ex-slaves became the mainstay of the Roman rowing force. Soldiers that did not possess Roman citizenship received this privilege after a minimum of 26 (later 28) years of service with all the attending benefits that this entailed, as well as a sizable cash payment.

Ship types

Small single-oar-bank galleys : Examples are penteconters and othersTriremes : The classical trireme was the mainstay of most Mediterranean navies until the 3rd century BC, and continued to serve in large numbers as a smaller, faster vessel along quinquiremes and bigger vessels. The name can refer to several types of ships with three bans of oars throughout the Republican and Imperial periods.Quinqueremes : Along with quadriremes, they made up the bulk of the Roman navy during and after the Punic Wars.Liburnians : They were small, swift galleys with a usual complement of three to four hundred men

Roman ships were commonly named after gods (Mars, Iuppiter, Minerva, Isis), heroes (Hercules), and concepts such as Trust, Loyalty, Victory (Concordia, Fides, Victoria)

Armament

The following weapons were used at various times by the Roman navy to fight their adversaries:

  • Ship hull, used to ride across and break the oars of an enemy ship, immobilising it.
  • Rams used to sink an enemy ship by holing its hull, when driven against its flank under oar power.
  • Grappling hooks used to clamp onto an enemy ship in order to allow the storming of its deck by embarked troops.
  • Corvus, a large boarding plank with a heavy spike on the bottom. The enemy ship was prior positioned via the help of grappling hooks. Afterwards the corvus swung down on the enemy deck with the spike mooring both ships to each other. This enabled large numbers of infantry in battle formation to fight the enemy marines. Actual use is only briefly reported from the First Punic War. Modern reconstruction suggests that it was probably discontinued because of the tendency to unbalance the quinqueremes in high seas. Two fleets armed with this device were reportedly lost in storms.
  • Arpax, a later successor in function to the corvus, an improved design reducing instability.
  • Deck-mounted ballista, like their land-based counterpart, used to bombard the enemy ships with missiles, such as arrows. Also used occasionally to launch incendiary devices.
  • Deck-mounted catapults, like their land-based counterpart, used to bombard the enemy ships with missiles, such as rocks. Also used occasionally to launch incendiary devices.
  • Light missiles included javelins and arrows
  • Troops from the army, who could embark before battle and try and assault enemy ships
  • Sailors were lightly armed but could also fight in battle when necessary.

Fleets

Principate period

After the end of the civil wars, Augustus reduced and reorganized the Roman armed forces, including the navy. A large part of the fleet of Mark Antony was burned, and the rest was withdrawn to a new base at Forum Iulii (modern Fréjus), which remained operative until the reign of Claudius. However, the bulk of the fleet was subdivided into two praetorian fleets at Misenum and Ravenna, supplemented by a growing number of minor ones in the provinces, which were often created on an ad hoc basis for specific campaigns. This organizational structure was maintained almost unchanged until the 4th century.

The two major fleets were stationed in Italy and acted as a central naval reserve, directly available to the Emperor (hence the designation "praetorian"). In the absence of any naval threat, their duties mostly involved patrolling and transport duties. These were:

The various provincial fleets were smaller than the praetorian fleets and composed mostly of lighter vessels. Nevertheless, it was these fleets that saw action, in full campaigns or raids on the periphery of the Empire. The provincial fleets were:

Dominate period

As the Empire faced increasing threats, a number of smaller squadrons were created during the 3rd century from the larger provincial fleets. Most of these were principally fluvial in nature, and set up to counter raids. Among these were:

  • The Classis Venetum, based at Aquileia and operating in the Adriatic Sea.
  • The Classis Scythiae, established from the Classis Moesica and operating in the Danube estuary (Scythia Minor) and the Black Sea.
  • The Classis Anderetianorum, based at Parisii (Paris) and operating in the Seine and Oise rivers.
  • The Classis Ararica, based at Caballodunum (Châlon-sur-Saône) and operating in the Saône River.
  • The Classis fluminis Rhodani, based at Arelate and operating in the Rhône River.
  • The Classis Sambrica, based at Locus Quartensis (unknown location) and operating in the Somme River and the Channel.
  • The Classis Carpathia, detached from the Classsis Syriaca in ca. 400 and based at the Aegean island of Karpathos.

Ports

Major Roman ports were:

See also

Notes

References

External links



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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 18:34:52 PDT (GMT -0700)
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