The Roman Navy
Prior to the First Punic War the Roman Navy only consisted of a few ships patrolling along the Italian coast and rivers. When in the conflict with Carthage the engagements at sea became decisive, the Romans were at first rendered helpless against the nautically experienced Carthaginians who were much better equipped with superior technology. The result was the rapid construction in 260 BC of the first sizeable Roman fleet of about 150 quinqueremes and triremes, operating near the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the toe of Italy.
The Romans also developed a new tactic in naval warfare. Rome worked to counter the Carthaginian advantage of
manoeuvrability by equipping their ships with the corvus, possibly developed earlier by the Syracusians against the Athenians, a plank with a spike for hooking onto enemy ships. Via a boarding
bridge numerically superior units of marines were transferred on to the enemy ship to board it in closed combat units, they had trained in
land warfare avoiding the traditional tactics of ramming, burning or traditional boarding, which required highly trained and experienced pilots.
We have records about revolts of allied levies, who did not want to crew these ships. Before the end of the First Punic War the corvus was banned from all Roman Navy ships.
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. 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 his strategy bringing the war to the Italian peninsula.
Ultimately the enemy fleet was forced to give way to the Roman navy, bootlegged from their own and employing the new tactic at sea. In the other two following Punic Wars the navy played in either an important role. During other
conquests especially in the eastern Mediterranean the navy played a very significant function. When the Mediterranean was mostly under Roman control (later to be called mare nostrum, our
sea by the Romans) the Roman naval strategists had no more to do then concentrate on rampant piracy.
This posed especially from Cilicia a growing threat for the Roman economy.
However when Pompey the Great downright wiped them out in a concentrated strike there
wasn't much left to do in the Mediterranean. Afterwards naval operations essential took place in the provinces. Large parts of the Roman fleet during the Republic were provided by
allies (mainly Greek).
As the Roman Republic unravelled in the period of civil war competing Roman forces once again built up their naval might. Sextus Pompeius in his conflict with Octavian amassed a fleet powerful enough to threaten the vital supply of grain from Sicily to Rome. Octavian with the help of Marcus Agrippa built a fleet at Forum Iulii and 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 in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. This last naval battle of the Roman Republic definitively established Rome with Octavian in sole command as the supreme naval power in the Mediterranean. After this he formalised several key naval harbours for the Mediterranean and the now fully professional navy had its main duties consist of protecting against piracy escorting troops and patrolling the rivers frontiers of Europe.
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 the Jemen 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 for the supply and transport of the legions. In 15 BC an independent fleet was installed at the lake Constance. Later the militaries Drusus and Tiberius used the Navy extensively when they tried to accomplish the Roman plan of a border extension to the Elbe. In 12 BC Drusus ordered to construct 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. In the years 15 and 16 Germanicus made within the scope of his Germania campaigns several fleet operations along Rhine and Ems although they were knocked out in response to grim Germanic resistance and a disastrous storm. By 28 the Romans lost further control of the Rhine mouth in a succession of Frisian insurgence. From 37 to 85 the Roman navy played an important role in the conquest of Britain. Especially the classis Germanica rendered outstanding services in multitudinous landing operations.
In 46 the military made a push deep into the Black Sea region and even travelled on the Tanais. By 57 an expedition corps reached Chersonesos. It seems 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 security 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. 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 captured the Orkney Islands for a short period of time and obtained information about the Shetland Islands. They also landed on the Hebrides and in Ireland.
Under the Five Good Emperors the navy operated mainly on the rivers. 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 top of the British Isles.
Under the soldier emperors the navy made it through a major crisis when during the rule of Trebonianus Gallus for the first time Germanics 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 Germanics. 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 was their onrush stopped. In 268 another much fiercer attack of Germanics took place. Part of the invading fleet attacked the Mediterranean islands of Creta, Rhodes and Cyprus, while the other part targeted the Greek mainland. Once again the Romans had nothing to withhold this attack. Only when the Germanics set off for the interior could Claudius Gothicus defeat them.
In 286 the Roman Empire faced another great danger when the insurgent supreme commander of the British Fleet, Carausius dominated Britannia and parts of the Gallic coast. For in one blow the complete Roman control of the channel and the North Sea was lost, emperor Maximinus was forced to reinstitute 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 able to deliver troops to Britannia. By a concentric attack on Londinum the insurgent province was retaken.
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 Germanics in 460 and 468 under the emperors Majorian and Anthemius on the North African shore. When the Völkerwanderung struck with full force on the Roman borders, the endeavours 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 trouble spots. The navy stationed in the Eastern Empire became the cadre for the Byzantine Empire. 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.
The fleet of the Roman Empire had two major bases, as well as several minor ones. The two major
fleets which controlled the Mare Nostrum were the Classis Misenensis and Classis
Ravennatis.
Provincial fleets included: Classis Britannica which controlled the English Channel and the waters around
Britannia; Classis Germanica which controlled the Rhine river and was a fluvial fleet;
Classis Pannonica which controlled the Danube river and was a fluvial fleet; Classis Moesica
which controlled the western Black sea; Classis Pontica which controlled the southern Black sea;
Classis Syriaca which controlled the eastern Mediterranean sea; Classis Alexandrina
which controlled the eastern Mediterranean sea; and Classis Mauretania
which controlled the African coasts of western Mediterranean sea.
Major Roman ports included: Misenum, Classis (near Ravenna), Alexandria, Leptis Magna and Ostia.
Major events
First Punic war.
Battle of the Lipari Islands, 260 BC, minor Carthaginian victory.
Battle of Mylae, 260 BC, Roman victory.
Battle of Sulci, 258 BC, Roman victory, obtained by consul Gaius Sulpicius
Paterculus.
Battle of Tyndaris, 257 BC, Roman victory.
Battle of Cape Ecnomus, 256 BC, Roman victory, involving huge fleets on both sides.
Battle of Drepana, 249 BC, Carthaginian victory.
Battle of the Aegates Islands, 241 BC, Roman victory; led to the end of the war.
Second Macedonian War.
War against Antiochus III the Great.
Battle of the Eurymedon, 190 BC – Roman forces under Lucius Aemilius Regillus defeated a Seleucid fleet commanded by Hannibal, fighting his last battle.
Battle of Myonessus, 190 BC – Another Seleucid fleet was defeated by the Romans.
First Mithridatic War.
Battle of Tenedos, 86 BC – defeat of a Pontic fleet.
Civil war after the death of Julius Caesar.
Battle of Naulochus, 36 BC – Octavian's fleet, under the command of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa defeated the forces of the rebel Sextus
Pompeius.
Battle of Actium, 31 BC – Octavian defeats the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
68 AD Legio I Adiutrix formed from sailors of the fleet.
Year of the four emperors, 69 – the fleet supported Emperor Otho against the usurper
Vitellius. Vespasian formed Legio II Adiutrix from sailors of the fleet.
Battle of the Hellespont, 323 – Flavius Iulius Crispus, son of Constantine I, defeated the naval forces of
Licinius.
461 AD Emperor Majorian assembles 300 ships to transport his army to north Africa.
468 AD a Vandalic fleet defeated the Roman fleet commanded by Basiliscus.
Crew
Neither the Romans nor the Greeks employed slaves as rowers onboard military vessels that were expecting to go into combat. There is some speculation that slaves may have been used to move military vessels from one port to another in times of peace but not in combat. Slaves had neither the training, the skill, nor the motivation required to row warships and could not be trusted to act in the best interests of those who owned or controlled the warships, especially in combat when the slaves may have been set free by those who captured their ship. Freeman were used to man the oars of warships, and in most cases these were trained individuals who were well paid in their day. Paid freemen are more likely to perform at their best.
A ship's crew regardless of its size was organised as a centuria with one officer responsible for sailing operations and a centurion for the military tasks. Among the crew were usually also a number of principales and immunes some of which were identical to those of the army and some of which were peculiar to the fleet. Command of fleets was given to equestrian prefects, those of the fleets based at Ravenna and Misenum having the largest prestige. Men could sign on as marines, rowers/seamen, craftsmen and various other jobs though all personnel serving in the imperial fleet were classed as soldiers 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 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 salary of around the same amount. The fleet recruited freeborn citizens and provincials as well as freedmen. Soldiers that did not possess Roman citizenship received this privilege after a minimum of 20 years of service with all the attending benefits that this entailed, as well as a sizable cash payment.
It is true that rowers
may not have been involved in as many fights their ship marines, but when push
came to shove rowers could and did fight along side their ship's marine. Some
historians insist that short swords were kept on board galleys for use by the
rowers when boarding actions were being fought. The losers of naval battles
often ended up as the slaves of the winners. A rower is a freeman who probably
did not want to end up as a slave for the rest of his life in some far away
foreign place.
Classic Triremes and Quinqueremes
The warships used by the Romans were adapted from the Greek triremes and
quinqueremes. The quinquereme had oars on each side set in banks of five. The arrangement of rowers on the benches was somewhat
complicated as these were long, low, narrow ships without much room to move about.
Yet the best research that scholars can point to tells us that there were three levels of benches, with two rowers on the top bench per side, two in the middle level per side, and only one strong rower on each side of each bottom bench. They had to row in unison and this skill required long weeks of practice to develop.
Otherwise the seamen would foul each
others' oars, leaving the ship a tangled mess with broken oars that would be easy prey for an enemy. In
fact a favourite fighting tactic was to make a high speed pass down the side of an enemy warship, shearing off its oars and maiming the crew in the process. Of
course the seamen who tried this would have to be well practiced in moving their own oars out of the way if they didn't want the destruction to be mutual.
The Romans as a civilization were not great scientists or inventors. Instead they excelled at taking an invention and developing it to perfection and applying it to solve a practical problem. Often it would be one of little practical use that was still at the toy stage but perhaps more often it was a weapon whose performance was only mediocre before they applied their nimble minds and hands to it. Such it was with their warships. They took Greek and Phoenician designs and beefed up the gunwales and added fighting towers and movable gangplanks for grappling with and boarding enemy vessels. Like the Greek and Phoenician designs, Roman warships had a sharp, reinforced beak or ram used for puncturing an enemy hull and a high, curved stern at the back. The reverse of a coin struck by the Gallic usurper Postumus clearly shows the stern of a Roman warship along with the shelter for the steersman and the rowers at their benches.
During the reign of Gallienus the Goths captured a fleet of ships and kept the Mediterranean lands in terror with their piratical raids. During the late Third and Fourth Centuries, Roman oared warships patrolled the English Channel, sweeping the sea of pirates and Saxon raiders under the command of the Count of the Saxon Shore. It was this strong British Fleet that Carausius used to rebel and seize the island province of Roman Britain. This same fleet enabled Carausius and his successor Allectus to hold their breakaway empire for ten years.
The Byzantines, inheritors of the Eastern Roman Empire and Rome's fleet and what little naval heritage she
possessed were quite a bit more innovative in the area of naval technology. Under the strong
emperors the Byzantine navy became the greatest in the Mediterranean and the pride of the empire. The Byzantine navy did not decline until the Venetian navy reached its peak when superiority in sea power once again emanated from the Italian peninsula.
Beginning around 80 BC Rome started to place a lot more emphasis on placing artillery onboard their war galleys, although there was always a preference for the placement and use of marines to fight the hand-to-hand actions. The Romans used ballistae catapults onboard their warships, and these catapults have no recoil and therefore were ideal for placement onboard galleys. During Julius Caesar's reign artillery moved more to the forefront as a main offensive arm of the Roman navy. Often with the spoils of war, after a successful military campaign the Roman navy ended up with many of the enemy's catapults. Light and medium ballistae were used regularly on Roman warships whereas heavy ballistae were probably not used due to the weight of the weapon and also because of the excessive weight of its ammunition.
Ballistae catapults fired virtually flat trajectory up to at least 200 metres (some ancient historians stated that the range could go as high as 400 metres) and was deadly. A light ballistae could penetrate 4 inches of wood planking whereas a medium ballistae fired a 10lb concrete/marble ball projectile that could far surpass the light ballistae for penetrating power (much like a cannon ball). Rowing crews in a cataphract ship, being hit at short range by a medium ballistae were probably injured in high numbers by these 10lb projectiles. Being in a cataphract ship was not a guarantee of protection against artillery.
Ramming by the end of Alexander the Great's time was a risky and unsure system of attack that required great skill, and a fair amount of luck to be pulled off successfully. One miscalculation could mean that you would inflict more damage on your own ship than onto the ship you attempted to ram. More ships of this period were starting to be built with reinforced waterlines which meant that ramming attacks were becoming less effective. To sink an enemy ship by ramming often meant having to ram the target more than once before it would finally sink. The Rhodians partly solved this problem by having their rams mounted lower on their ship's bows allowing them to strike an enemy ship's hull beneath the reinforced waterline belt, but the trade off was that has the ship's bow could drag when attempting to beach the ship, as well as other problems. The Romans circumvented ramming altogether by using boarding as their main method of attack. Boarding combat was a easier to control, quicker to resolve and safer than ramming and the Romans had a ready stock of heavily armed, trained soldiers from their land armies. This was an easy solution for the Romans as well as also being a highly effective one since most other navies only used lightly armed and armoured marines.
Capturing enemy ships was preferable to the sinking of enemy ships. It is easier and cheaper to refit a captured warship than it is to build a new one from scratch. Also nothing hurts an enemy more than seeing one of their warships serving in the navy of their former enemy. Sinking of war galleys was for the most part impossible since galleys were built "light" so as to attain good speeds and manoeuvrability. A ship that is recorded as having sunk during a battle in fact really just sinks up to its deck and then floats around as a wreck for the next few weeks or even the next few months before finally sinking or breaking up. It has been rumoured that even sunken/floating wrecks were salvaged by whomever found and recovered the wreck.