The Roman Navy

Ships, Men and Warfare 350 BC–AD 475

Michael Pitassi

• Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781848320901
• eBook ISBN: 9781473817753
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The Roman Navy was remarkable for its size, reach and longevity. As significant as the Royal Navy was to the British Empire in the nineteenth century, the Roman Navy was crucial to the extraordinary expansion of Imperial power and for its maintenance over a period of more than 800 years. The fabric and organisation of this maritime force is at the core of this new book.At the height of its power the Roman Navy was, at least in numerical terms, the largest maritime force ever to have existed. It employed tens of thousands of sailors and maintained and fought fleets of ships larger than any forces since. In these pages the author looks at all the aspects of the Navy in turn. Shipbuilding, rigs and fittings, and shipboard weaponry are covered as are all the principal ship from the earliest types to the very last. The command structure is outlined, as are all aspects of the crews lives, their recruitment, terms of service, training and uniforms. Life onboard, food and drink, discipline, religion and superstition are described, while seamanship and navigation are dealt with along with bases and shore establishments. Operations feature prominently, the allied and enemy navies compared, and specimen battles employed to explain fighting tactics.All these aspects changed and developed hugely over the great span of the Roman empire but this fascinating book brings this complex story together in one brilliant volume.

CONTENTS

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Preface

I INTRODUCTION

1 A Brief History of the Roman Navy

Chronology of Naval Affairs

II THE SHIPS

2 Shipbuilding

3 Shipboard Weapons

4 Types of Ship – The Republic

5 Types of Ship – The Empire

III COMMAND STRUCTURE

6 Organisation of the Fleets

7 The Command Structure

8 Shipboard and Other Ranks

IV THE CREWS

9 Recruitment

10 Terms of Service

11 Training

12 Uniforms and weapons

V SERVICE LIFE

13 Food and drink

14 On Board Ship

15 Religion and Superstition

VI SEAMANSHIP

16 Navigation

17 Ship Performance

18 Bases and Shore Establishments

VII OPERATIONS

19 Strategy and Deployment

20 Scouting and Intelligence

21 Blockades

VIII TACTICS

22 Battle Tactics

23 The Periplous Battle

24 The Diekplous Battle

25 The Influence of Topography

26 The Static Battle

Principal Roman Naval Actions

IX ALLIED NAVIES

27 Rhodes

28 Pergamum and Syracuse

29 Marseilles and Judaea

X ENEMY NAVIES

30 Carthage, Taranto, the Pirates

31 Hellenistic Navies

32 The Barbarians

APPENDIX MODELLING NOTES

Modelling Roman Ships

Modelling Techniques

Building a Quinquereme

References and Notes

Index

PREFACE

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THE ROMAN NAVY or, more accurately, the naval forces of the Roman state, is more often than not consigned to little more than a couple of paragraphs in many accounts of Roman military endeavour. In fact, it was for over 800 years an integral part of the armed forces of that Roman state and became the world’s first ‘super-power’ navy. It was the instrument by which Rome achieved domination of the western Mediterranean, which enabled her expansion into the lands surrounding it and the foundation of her empire; it was naval forces that enabled the Romans to intervene and eventually to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean and the lands of the near east. It was a naval campaign and a sea battle that established and secured power for the first of the emperors of Rome; it was the navy’s domination that enabled trade and the economy of the empire to grow and to flourish, free from the scourge of piracy and to an extent not equalled until the twentieth century. Finally, it was the loss of that domination that was a vital factor in the disintegration and ending of the Western Roman Empire. Cicero’s dictum that ‘The master of the sea must inevitably be master of the empire’ (M. Tullius Cicero, 106–43 BC, Epistolae ad Atticus 10.8.4, existimat enim qui mare teneat eum necesse [esse] rerum potiri) has proved to be true in every Europe-wide war since. At its height, during the Punic Wars, the navy accounted for fully a third of the total Roman military effort and during imperial times it averaged rather more than a tenth of it.

Surviving evidence relating to the service is sparse and fragmentary but there is overall a body of information about the Roman navy, seafaring and shipping in the ancient world and aspects of Roman life which can be searched to extract a picture of the Roman navy as a whole. In seeking to arrive at a detailed picture of the service, parallel evidence will also have to be relied upon, as will therefore, the argument that it would be unreasonable as well as illogical to suppose that entirely separate arrangements, systems or methods had been employed just for the navy. For example, while on the one hand it seems likely that the army’s standard issue sword, the gladius hispaniensis, was also used by the marines of the navy, on the other it seems that the navy adopted a short pike for use in boarding which finds no parallel with the army. Conclusions should not, however, be reached without consideration of the appropriateness of an item. So, for example again, it is well known that the Roman legionary wore sturdy, ventilated boots (caligae) studded with hobnails, but this footwear would have been impractical for a marine, as the hobnails would lack grip on a wooden deck and would quickly rip the surfaces to shreds. One can thus posit that a marine’s boot, although similar, would have substituted a leather or rope sole; the army’s boot is proven, the marine’s surmised, but well within the technology of the time but there are no surviving examples.

There is some evidence, however, such as inscriptions, wall and pottery paintings, statuary and literary references, that directly relate to the navy. As an example, a votive altar set up by Valerius Valens, in which he describes himself as Praefect[us] Classis Mis[enensis] (CIL X.3336/ILS 3765), prefect of the fleet at Misenum, shows that the post existed in the early third century AD, the date of the altar. There are other traces, too, on the monumental scale; at Carthage, for example, there are the remains of the basins that formed the once great military and mercantile harbours, including the base of an excavated ship shed on the area now known as Admiralty Island. Syracuse has some remains of city walls from ancient times as well as the great Euryalus fortress, the world’s first artillery fort. In Rome the Capitoline Museum houses the plaque erected to celebrate Duilius’ naval victory at Mylae in 260 BC. At Ostia, by the Marine Gate, the funerary monument of C. Cartilius Poplicola (first century BC) commemorating his military achievements in life is crowned by a representation of a warship of trireme configuration; almost opposite this is a model in marble of a ship’s ram. There are smaller artefacts, such as bricks bearing stamps of the fleets that had them made, metal diplomas awarded to men upon their retirement from the service and inscriptions and reliefs on monuments and stelae in many museums, as well as wall paintings, such as those from Pompeii.

The view from Baia (Baiae) to Pozzuoli (Puteoli). Tiberius’ philosopher, Thrasyllus taunted Gaius (Caligula) that he could no more become emperor than ride a chariot between them. When he did become emperor, Gaius ordered the nearby Misene fleet to gather every ship that they could find to bridge the distance of some 2 miles (3 km); they built a pontoon bridge from some 2,000 ships, 10 feet (3 m) wide to join them, with ‘islands’ every thousand paces upon which ‘villages’ were constructed. Gaius duly rode his chariot across, accompanied by cavalry and infantry, returning across on the following day. (Author’s photograph)

Although having had great numbers of ships and men, the Republican navy did not have the great naval bases of later Imperial times and thus little trace remains of it. The Imperial navy did, however, and archaeological excavations have been carried out at many of them, although there is sometimes little to distinguish the remains as distinctly ‘naval’ as opposed to military. Thus a military hospital unearthed at Xanten (Vetera, Belgium) could serve both the Rhine fleet and local garrisons. One location known to be of naval significance is, of course, Misenum, much of which is now a pleasant, modern holiday town; but there are visible remains of masonry and moles and the base of the temple of the Augustales, the priests of the cult of the emperors, can be...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents