Ancient Roman Navy
The Roman Navy (Latin: Classis) operated between the First Punic war and the end of the Western Roman Empire.
History and Evolution
The Roman navy was very much inferior, both in prestige and capability, to the Roman army. Before the First Punic War in 264 BC there was no Roman navy to speak of as all previous Roman war had been fought in Italy. But the war in Sicily against Carthage, a great naval power, forced Rome to quickly build a fleet and train sailors. The first few naval battles of the First Punic War were disasters for Rome, and it was not until the invention of the Corvus, a grappling engine which made it easier for Romans to board the Carthaginian vessels, that Rome was able to win the war. This meant that Rome could use her superior army in naval combat, and was a significant shift away from the tactics of all other navies at the time.
Rome was able to use her superior army in preference to her navy in most of the wars she fought afterwards. By the late Empire Roman control over the Mediterranean coast meant that there were no non-Roman navies to fight. Indeed, Rome's last major naval battle was fought between Romans, Octavian and Marc Antony, at Actium. However, she still maintained a large navy which patrolled not just the Mediterranean, but the various major rivers in the empire. Although the quality of the navy did degrade into the later imperial period, emperors such as Diocletian put significant effort into rebuilding the navy. The average estimate of manpower strength of the navy ranges from 50,000-100,000.
Early History
The Romans were originally a land power based in the Italian mainland, and were wary of the sea. In the First Punic War (264 BC - 241 BC), the Carthaginians, a power rooted in sea trade, were able to exploit their strength at sea in their struggles with the Roman Republic. Since most of the conflict in the war was overseas (especially in Sicily), Rome saw that it needed to build a fleet in order to develop an effective military response. 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.
Rome worked to nullify the Carthaginian sea advantage by equipping their ships with the newly invented corvus, a plank with a spike for hooking onto enemy ships. This allowed the Romans to send their army to sea to board the attached enemy ships, avoiding the traditional battle tactics of ramming, in which they were far less experienced.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 the strategy, bringing the war to the Italian mainland.
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. Periodically, Rome would organize expeditions to deal with pirates. In 67 BC, Pompey organized a naval force that effectively rid the Mediterranean of them for the time.As the Roman Republic unraveled 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, ending all Pompeian resistance. Octavian's power was further cemented against the combined fleets of Marcus Antonius 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.
Weapons and Equipment of the Navy
Corvus
A corvus (meaning "raven" in Latin) was a Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage.In the Book III of his History, Polybius describes the corvus like a bridge 1.2 m (4 ft) wide and 10.9 m (36 ft) long, with a small parapet on both sides. The engine was probably used in the prow of the ship, where a system of pulleys and a pole allowed the bridge to be raised and lowered. There was a heavy spike shaped as a bird's beak on the underside of the device, hence the name "raven". The spike was designed to pierce the enemy ship's deck when the corvus was lowered. This allowed a firm grip between the vessels and a boarding route for the legionaries.
In the 3rd century BC, Rome was not a naval power and had little or no experience in war at sea. In fact, before the first Punic war, the Roman Republic had not campaigned outside the Italian Peninsula. The Republic's military strength was on land, and her greatest assets were the discipline and courage of her soldiers. The corvus allowed her to use her army against the superior Carthaginian navy. The Romans' application of boarding tactics worked; they won several battles, most notably those of Mylae, Sulci, Tyndaris, and Ecnomus. Despite its advantages, the corvus had serious drawbacks: modern enactments show that its weight on the prow compromised the ship's navigability.
Romans lost almost two entire fleets to storms in 255 and in 249 BC, largely due to the instability caused by the device. These losses were probably the main reason for the abandonment of the corvus in ship design by the end of the war. As Roman naval tactics improved and her crews became more experienced, the advantage of the corvus in battle no longer outweighed the risk involved in using it. It is not mentioned in period sources after the battle of Ecnomus and apparently the battle of the Aegates Islands that decided the first Punic war was won without them; however an evolution of the corvus, called arpax, was used in the battle of Naulochus.
Quinterimes
A quinterime (also quinquereme) is a three-decked galley used in ancient times by the Roman Republic, Roman Empire and the Carthaginians. It is very similar to the more common trireme, with a bronze ram at the front end and a row of oarmen on both sides of each deck. However, on a quinquireme, there were two men at an oar on the top and middle decks. Most had a sail for longer travels.
The Greeks outfitted their ships with several marines, usually hoplites. The Romans used hastati, principes or possibly even triarii. The Persians used archers as marines. Sometimes the Romans attached a corvus.
Probably the most decisive battle including ancient ships of this type was the Battle of Salamis.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
CRYSTALINKS MAILING LIST, NEWSLETTER, UPDATES