Sea Eagles of Empire

The Classis Britannica and the Battles for Britain

Simon Elliott

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781803991580, 9780750966023
• eBook ISBN: 9780750969314
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Winner of Military History Monthly 's 2017 Book of the Year Award

The Classis Britannica was the Roman regional fleet controlling and protecting the waters around the British Isles – in other words, Britain's first-ever navy.

For over 200 years it played a key role in the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire: it helped to establish the province of Britannia and assisted in Roman military campaigns, as well as controlling the continental coast through to the Rhine Delta. Outside of war, the Classis Britannica also offered vital support for the civilian infrastructure of Roman Britain, assisting in administration, carrying out major building and engineering projects, and running industry. Later, its mysterious disappearance in the mid-third century ad would contribute to Britain finally leaving the Empire 150 years later. In Sea Eagles of Empire, acclaimed historian Simon Elliott tells its story for the very first time.

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BACKGROUND

The Classis Britannica officially came into being in the Flavian period towards the end of the first century AD, being first mentioned by Tacitus in the context of the Batavian uprising in Germania Inferior in AD 70 (Histories, 4, 79, 3), though the fleet owes its origins to the Claudian invasion of AD 43. It is therefore firmly rooted in the Imperial period of Roman history and, given it is last referenced between AD 244 and AD 249, in the Principate originally established by Augustus.

A major fighting force in its own right, and also a resource used by the province for many other purposes, the Classis Britannica acts as a unique cypher to enable us to view the Roman experience in Britain and elsewhere on multiple levels. In the first instance it was one of the major regional fleets of the Principate, fulfilling a wide variety of military roles around the islands of Britain and along the North Sea Continental coast. It therefore played a major part in all of the great campaigns in Britain through to the mid-third century, while patrolling the littoral around the province and at the same time securing the eastern coastal flank of the limes Germanicus. Thus we can see from the primary sources a Roman fleet (pre-eminent among the regional fleets according to Pitassi in his wide review of Roman naval power, 2012, 50) in action on the open ocean and in the littoral zone, providing insight that is relevant to research not just for occupied Britain but for Roman naval activity across the Empire.

Through these campaigns and the fleet’s regular intelligence gathering and patrolling activities we also get insight into the nature of the province of Britain, the wild west of the Empire with its northern and western borders ever a militarised border zone.

Throughout Britain’s incorporation in the Roman Empire the province had an existentially large military presence. Because of this, and also because it was farthest geographically from Rome in the western part of the Empire, the province was a regular hotbed for usurpations and revolts. In these the Classis Britannica played a major role, again providing insight for the historian and archaeologist, though this involvement may ultimately have cost the fleet its existence.

Finally, in an age before the advent of the modern civil service, state-owned industries or a free market able to facilitate major capital infrastructure projects, those running a Roman province would have used any asset available to provide administration, transport, construction and engineering services, and to run the Imperial estates through which the major industrial enterprises were managed. In Britain, through to its demise, this asset was the Classis Britannica. The regional navy was therefore the very lifeblood by which the province maintained its existence. All of these themes above are discussed in depth in the following work.

This first chapter of our investigation into the British regional fleet is designed to provide all of the background information needed to appreciate the in-depth review of the Classis Britannica that follows. In the first instance I appraise how Britain was perceived in the classical world, before looking more specifically at Britain’s place in the Roman Empire. I then detail specifically the sources of the data used in my research, before finally looking at some of the practicalities that had an impact on those carrying out maritime activities around the islands of Britain and along the north-western Continental coast during the Roman period. These include tidal and weather patterns at the time, the differential in sea level compared to today, and a review of some of the models available to help us understand maritime activity around the islands of Britain during the occupation.

Britain in the Classical World

Even before its separation from the Eurasian landmass around 6,100 BC, Britain’s maritime context was shaping its destiny. Prior to this date it was a promontory stabbing out into the Atlantic at the north-western tip of Europe, and ever since its island nature has shaped its relationship with the rest of the Continent.

Britain was well known prior to the Roman occupation, though as a place of mystery at the very edge of the known world. The earliest reference to its existence appears in the sixth century BC Massaliot Periplus merchants’ handbook, now lost but referenced in the Ora Maritime by fourth-century Roman poet Avienus. Designed for use by those trading along the sea routes to northern Europe, this work shows that even at the earliest dates maritime activity around the islands of Britain was a key focus of regional attention. The original sixth-century work is also the first to attribute a name for the inhabitants of Britain, namely the Albiones for the British and Iverni for the Irish.

Herodotus is the next to reference islands in north-western Europe in the fifth century BC, he describing the Cassiterides in his Histories. These have often been associated with Britain given that the name translates as ‘tin islands’, the metal being a key export from Britain in the prehistoric let alone classical world. More clarity then comes in the form of the fourth-century BC Greek geographer Pytheas. Originating from Marseille (the Greek colony of Massalia, also home of the Massaliot Periplus detailed above), his definitive work is similarly lost to us, but key sections have been preserved by ancient authors including Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Diodorus.

Pytheas was the first person to record a circumnavigation of Britain during his maritime exploration of north-western Europe, which took in a visit to modern Denmark and seemingly an extraordinary visit to Iceland. His reports on the British Isles set a template for most of what followed in the classical world, highlighting their triangular shape and describing Kent, Land’s End in Cornwall and the Orkneys. He also notes for the first time the name from which our current ‘Britain’ is derived, reporting that the natives were called the Pretani (painted ones, referencing the prevalence of tattooing among the natives he encountered). Both Strabo and Pliny made extensive use of Pytheas in their much later descriptions of Britain, the latter going into an immense amount of detail, for instance describing the forty islands of the Orkneys, the seven of the Shetlands, the thirty of the Hebrides and also describing the island of Anglesey. Pytheas’ work is also evident in the physical descriptions of Britain by others, for example Caesar (who of course visited himself twice) and Agrippa.

The definitive classical map of Britain though is derived from Claudius Ptolemy’s mid-second-century Geography. This extensive gazetteer of the peoples and places of the Empire crucially included latitude and longitude, allowing for the first time a representation of the province to be created that appears vaguely recognisable to modern eyes. By the time his work appeared, however, Britain had been part of the Empire for more than a century, the Classis Britannica was in its prime and the islands had long since ceased to be the subject of mystery and awe.

Britain in the Roman Empire

Rome had designs on Britain well before the Claudian invasion in AD 43. Caesar famously made two incursions in 55 BC and 54 BC, though these might best be regarded as armed reconnaissances in the context of his conquest of Gaul (given the assistance provided to his Gallic enemies by some of the tribes of Britain). Augustus himself, founder of the Principate, planned at least three invasions in 34 BC, 27 BC and 25 BC (the first and last cancelled because of issues elsewhere in the ancient world, and the second abandoned after successful diplomacy). These false starts were certainly viewed negatively at the time, with the first century BC poet Horace (Odes, III.v) reflecting that, ‘Augustus will be deemed a God on Earth when the Britons and the deadly Parthians [also targets for Early Imperial Roman expansion] have been added to our Empire.’

Although Augustus’ plans to invade Britain came to naught, naval activity is definitely evident in the North Sea and along the north-western European coast during his reign. For example, in 12 BC his stepson, Drusus, deployed a fleet in the Ems Estuary while campaigning in Germania to subdue the Sicambri, while Drusus’ brother, Tiberius, also used naval forces to protect the North Sea flank of his similar campaigning along the German limes in AD 5. Drusus’ son, Germanicus, also used substantial naval forces while campaigning in Germany in AD 14 and AD 15, including an amphibious operation in the latter campaign to transport several legions.

Next, and bringing the focus back to Britain, in AD 40 Caligula famously abandoned his invasion of Britain from the beaches of northern Gaul (see Chapter 2 for full details), before finally Claudius went ahead with his invasion three years later.

The reality was that, from the moment of Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the mid-first century BC, let alone the first of his two journeys across the English Channel, the proximity of the new superpower had begun to radically change the political, economic and social nature of Late Iron Age (LIA) society in Britain. This was particularly the case in the south and the east, where a case can be made that there was at the very least a Roman mercantile presence prior to Claudius’ invasion. Closest to Gaul was Kent (pre-Roman Cantion), populated by the Cantiaci. Kent may well have had a unique place in occupied Britain (discussed in depth in Chapter 4) and many have argued it long had a closer association with northern Gaul than it had with its neighbours in Britain, dating from the Mesolithic through to the early Medieval period (post-Roman burials in the county, for example, have a particularly Frankish feel). These neighbours included the Trinovantes to the north, the Catuvellauni to the north-west and the Atrebates and Regnii to the west.

Spreading out around Britain, one then has the Durotriges and Dumnonii along the south coast heading west, the Belgae, Dubonni and Cornovii heading northwards into the Welsh Marches, the Silures, Demetae, Ordovices and Deceangli ranging south to north in Wales proper, the Brigantes and Carvetti in the north country heading into the Scottish Borders, the Parissi north of the Humber, Caritani south of the Humber and Iceni in modern Norfolk. The impact of the presence of Rome prior to the occupation diminished as one headed north and west, and even after the province came into being and began to flourish this division remained in place, with the dividing line being roughly on a line from the Severn running north-eastwards to the Humber. If you lived south of that line during the occupation you were in a fully functioning part of the Empire, with all the economic benefits that this entailed. Caesar (V.135) himself famously describes Britain at the time of his 55 BC sortie as being densely populated and heavily cultivated, and it is clearly the south and the east that he is describing here. If, however, you lived north of the Severn–Humber line, you were in a military border zone where the whole local economy was bent towards maintaining the barrier between the Romanitas of the Empire and the darkness of barbaricum to the north and west beyond.

The Claudian invasion, prompted by opportunities presented when the Catuvellauni displaced the Trinovantes as the leading kingdom in the south-east (see Chapter 6 for full details), marked a huge watershed in the story of the islands of Britain. The most likely landing areas would have been the coast of eastern Kent, with the then shelter of the Wantsum Channel and the broad expanses of beach from Sandwich to Deal being particularly inviting to the invaders, adding to the relatively safe harbourage of Pegwell Bay. The landing place in this part of Kent was later marked in monumental fashion by the construction of a fine quadiphons triumphal 25m-high arch at Richborough that became the official gateway to the new province.

It should be noted here, of course, that despite the success of the Claudian invasion, which survived the significant threat of failure in the early 60s AD with the Boudican Revolt, the whole of mainland Britain was never fully conquered (with no attempt at all evidently being made to conquer modern Ireland). This story will be told in detail in Chapters 6 to 9 through the exp...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Andrew Lambert
• Introduction
• 1 Background
• 2 The Roman Navy: History, Technology and Crew
• 3 The Roman Military in Britain and the Classis Britannica
• 4 The Military Roles of the Classis Britannica
• 5 The Civilian Roles of the Classis Britannica
• 6 The Early Campaigns of the Classis Britannica (AD 43–AD 100)
• 7 The Campaigns of the Mature Classis Britannica (AD 101–AD 191)
• 8 The Later Campaigns of the Classis Britannica (AD 192–AD 249)
• 9 The End of the Classis Britannica
• 10 Conclusion
• Timeline
• Bibliography