Payments for Areas with Natural Constraint

PORTUS IULIUS

This naval base was on the Bay of Naples at the Lucrine Lake. The lake was opened to the sea and linked by a channel to Lake Avernus further inland, which offered a safe inner harbor. It was built by Agrippa in 37 BCand had extensive harborage and dockyards. It was soon abandoned, apparently because it was difficult to maintain, and silted up.

FORUM IULII

A naval base and harbor were also established at Forum Iulii around 37 BC as a base for operations

against the fleet of Sextus Pompeius (son of Pom-pey), and this is probably where part of Octavian’s fleet was built. A lagoon of the Argenteus river was made into a harbor by constructing moles and quays.

The fleet here guarded the coast of Gaul and could proceed up the Rhône River. As Gaul became paci-fied, the importance of this remote harbor declined.

Most of the crew and ships probably transferred to Misenum before 22 BC, although Forum Iulii con-tinued as a detachment of the main fleet to AD69, after which the harbor silted up.

MISENE FLEET (CLASSIS MISENENSIS) The natural harbor at Misenum is at the northern end of the Bay of Naples. The main inner harbor (now a landlocked lagoon, the Mare Morto) was connected by a narrow channel to the outer harbor, which was improved by the construction of two par-allel arched moles. It served as the headquarters of the naval fleet for four centuries, reserved solely for naval use. In 69 it probably had over 10,000 sailors and over 50 ships, mostly triremes, with some quad-riremes and quinqueremes, and a “six” as flagship.

Detachments from the Misene fleet were based in Ostia, Pozzuoli, Centumcellae (a harbor built by Trajan on the south Etrurian coast) and probably ports elsewhere such as Sardinia and Corsica. The largest detachment of men from the Misene fleet was at Rome, based in the praetorian camp.

RAVENNA FLEET (CLASSIS RAVENNAS) The fleet based at Ravenna on Italy’s Adriatic coast was smaller than at Misenum, probably with about 5,000 men in 69. It was established by 25 BC, and consisted mainly of triremes. The harbor, designed for naval use only, consisted of an enlarged lagoon in the delta of the Po River, two miles south of Ravenna.

It was equipped with moles, a lighthouse and a camp.

A canal (fossa Augusta) led from the harbor to the Po.

There were only a few subsidiary detachments of the Ravenna fleet, such as at Salonae on the Dalmatian coast. A detachment at Brindisi may have been from Ravenna. The detachment at Rome was smaller than that from the Misene fleet. Other ports were proba-bly used as well, but not on a permanent basis. The Ravenna fleet was active on occasions in the western

Mediterranean. The harbor became silted up in the Middle Ages, and is now inland.

CLASSIS ALEXANDRINA

The Alexandrian fleet or Egyptian squadron was based at Alexandria and was probably Augustan in origin. Under Vespasian it was rewarded with the title Classis Augusta Alexandrina for services to him in the civil war. In the 1st century it did not have regular duties on the Nile as the river was patrolled by ships of the potamophylacia, an independent ser-vice that exercised fiscal and police supervision over the waterways of Egypt and ferried detachments from the military forces. During the 2nd century the Alexandrian fleet took over this function. The fleet probably continued to 250.

CLASSIS SYRIACA

The Syrian fleet was based at Seleucia, the chief har-bor on the Syrian coast, and was also responsible for patrolling the Aegean. It was possibly Augustan in origin, although it is first attested in the reign of Hadrian.

MAURETANIAN FLEET

A detachment of the Alexandrian and Syrian fleets was based far to the west along the African coast at Caesarea when Mauretania became a province in the 1st century.

CLASSIS MOESICA

The Danube divides into two at the Iron Gates in the Kazan Gorge, and it was probably difficult for ships to pass safely through this stretch in times of low water. It was therefore necessary for two fleets to be based along the Danube. The Moesian fleet was based along the lower (eastern) Danube and also patrolled the northern coasts of the Black Sea. It was probably Augustan in origin.

CLASSIS PANNONICA

The Pannonian fleet was probably Augustan in ori-gin, although its earliest record is in 50. It was based

on the middle and upper (western) Danube and also patrolled the Save and Drave tributaries in Pannonia Superior. Its main base was at Taurunum, near the junction of the Save and Danube, and there may have been detachments at Brigetio, Aquincum and Car-nuntum. The fleets on the Danube were useless in winter as the river freezes from December to the end of February. The Roman fleets on the middle Danube continued in some form to the end of Roman rule.

CLASSIS LAURIACENSIS

The first known mention of this fleet is in the Notitia Dignitatum of the 4th century. It operated in the upper Danube and was probably based in a harbor at the junction of the Enns River, near the legionary fortress of Lauriacum in Noricum.

CLASSIS PONTICA

The Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) came partly under Roman control with the annexation of Thrace in 46, and there may have been a native Thracian fleet (Classis Perinthia). In 64 Pontus (previously a client kingdom) was annexed, bringing the whole of Asia Minor and the southern shores of the Black Sea as far as the Caucasus under Roman control. The Pontic fleet was established in 64 from the royal fleet of the former client kings and consisted mainly of liburni-ans. Its base was at Trapezus, and it was responsible for the southern and eastern parts of the Black Sea.

The fleet disappeared after 250 with the invasions of the Goths, and there were no Roman warships in the Hellespont until the 4th century.

CLASSIS GERMANICA

Apart from the Italian fleets, much more is known of the German fleet than any other (fig. 2.2). It was based on the River Rhine, with its headquarters at Alteburg, Cologne. There were also subsidiary sta-tions, such as at Neuss, Xanten, Nijmegen, Velsen and Arentsburg. The fleet played a prominent part in campaigns against the German tribes, and several shipping disasters are known from literary sources.

A canal (Fossa Drusiana) was constructed by Drusus the Elder in the late 1st century BCto shorten the distance from the Rhine to the North Sea. The fleet

was Augustan in origin. It remained loyal to Domit-ian during Saturninus’ rebellion and received the titles Pia Fidelis Domitiana.

CLASSIS BRITANNICA

The British fleet was established in the reign of Claudius as massive naval operations were required to invade Britain in 43. Its main base was at Boulogne, and there were bases on the southern English coast, including Richborough, Lympne and Dover. It operated from the time of Claudius and is last attested in the mid-3rd century.

OTHER FLEETS

In Greece, Piraeus was used by naval forces but had no permanent detachment of any fleet, although sailors from the Misenum and Ravenna fleets are known to have served there. In southern France, despite the importance of the trade routes, the River Rhône did not have its own naval fleet until the 4th century.

TITLES

The honorific title of praetoria was given to both Ital-ian fleets, probably during the first century, under

Domitian. This placed them alongside the praetorian cohorts in the central system of defense. The provincial fleets were also honored by similar titles. The Alexan-drian, German and possibly Syrian fleets received from Vespasian the title Augusta, and the Pannonian and Moesian fleets the title Flavia. In the 3rd century Gor-dian III gave the fleets the title GorGor-diana.

Warships

Roman warships were long war galleys based on designs from existing shipbuilding traditions, mainly Greek, with Latinized forms of Greek names, although no actual warships of Roman date have been found. The three main types of warship were the trireme (three-er), quadrireme (fourer) and quinquereme (fiver). The standard warship of the republican fleets was the quinquereme, but it lost its preeminence after the battle of Actium in 31 BC. The quadrireme then appeared, but the trireme remained the main warship in the Italian fleets.

Occasionally “sixes” (probably outsize quin-queremes) were used as flagships, and Antony had galleys up to a “ten” in size. Augustus, though, kept nothing larger than a “six” for his flagship.

2.2 Neumagen wine ship tombstone (copy), early 3rd century. It represents a warship of the German fleet, with a ram, 22 oars and a steering oar, plus a cargo of wine barrels. The figures are shown too large in proportion to the warship.

The fleets were apparently composed of a mix-ture of types of ship. The warships were narrow and long (generally 1 to 7 proportions). They were pro-pelled by oars and so were superior to sailing ships as they did not rely on the Mediterranean winds. Con-temporary representations show the ships with one, two or three banks of oars. They were probably built in the same way as merchant ships. Space was very restricted, and ships could not exceed a certain size in case they broke up in rough weather.

Warships are not known to have exceeded 60m (200 ft) in length and were usually far less. They did not stand high above the water and were not very seaworthy or stable, although they were broader and sturdier than earlier Greek ships. There is little evi-dence for lead sheathing of warships, which were hauled ashore in harbor. They could not keep at sea for long periods and were normally laid up in winter.

From the base of the prow jutted a ram, made of a huge timber sheathed in bronze. However, the Romans adapted their warships to the tactics of land warfare by using a boarding rather than a ramming strategy. A moveable boarding bridge or gangplank (nicknamed the corvus, crow or raven) was designed to fix itself into the deck of the enemy ship. It was a boarding plank 11m (36 ft) long and 1.2m (4 ft) wide with a heavy iron spike at one end. It was lowered and raised by a pulley system. When raised, it stood against a vertical mastlike pole in the bow of the ship. When lowered, it projected far over the bow, and the spike would embed in the deck of the enemy ship, allowing the sailors to board. The corvus was described by Polybius, but may have been used only for a few years around the First Punic War. It may have been scrapped as its design could have made ships unseaworthy.

Various types of grapnel (manus ferrea, harpago or harpago-corvus) were subsequently used, on a pole or chain, with soldiers probably boarding ships by light ladders. In the civil war Agrippa (who commanded Augustus’ fleets) devised a new weapon, the cata-pult-grapnel (harpax), which fired a grapnel from a catapult.

Ships were given names, often of the gods or a river, but these were not inscribed on the hull as today. Above the ram, the prow was often sur-mounted by a carved figurehead (such as a monster, animal or god) indicating the name of the ship, or

else the prow terminated in a spiral decorated with a figure. On the sides above the ram and below the prow there were also carved figures or mystic eyes.

In the center of the ship was a mast that could be raised or lowered at sea, and carried a big square sail;

at the prow was a second smaller mast, inclined for-ward, for a smaller sail. On each side of the poop hung a steering oar.

The arrangement of oars is uncertain. In the ear-lier Greek triremes there were 25 groups of three rowers on each side, a total of 150 rowers, each of whom pulled an individual oar. There were three banks of oars, with the rowers in each group were seated in a complicated staggered arrangement to save space. The arrangement of oars in a Roman quinquereme is unclear, and probably there were only additional rowers for larger craft, not addi-tional banks of oars. The crews were larger than in a trireme, and five men seem to have pulled each great oar, with a total of 400 rowers. The quadriremes may have had two banks of oars with two men to each oar. The power of the rowers was limited and easily expendable, and so they probably worked in shifts on long voyages. When winds were favorable, sails could be used.

The liburna (pl. liburnae) or liburnian ship was not a system of oarage but a style of construction originally used by the pirate tribe, the Liburni, of the west coast of Illyria. It was a light, fast ship with one or two banks of oars and a very large lateen sail.

By the late 2nd century BCit had two banks of oars, with two men in each group in the style of a trireme.

It began to be widely adopted from the 1st century

BC, supplanting the quinqueremes. It occurs in lim-ited numbers in the Italian fleets but became the standard vessel in the provincial fleets.

Vessels more suitable for river transport were also used in the naval fleets on the navigable rivers and canals.

The dromon (runner) appeared at the end of the 5th century and was the main Byzantine warship until the 11th century. It was similar in form to the earlier Roman warships and was a light, swift long galley with one or two tiers of oars. The dromon had a foredeck and poopdeck but was otherwise open, although the rowers were protected by the gangways and a light frame on which shields were hung. The name dromon referred to the largest type of war

gal-ley, with 100 to 120 oars, but it was also used loosely for smaller ships with fewer oars. The ships had two masts, a mainmast and a foremast, and in later centuries they had lateen sails. They relied on ramming and hand-to-hand combat, and from the 7th century carried incendiary artillery.