Raffaele D’Amato - Imperial Roman Warships 193–565 AD

210 AD The Classis Britannica supports the land operations of the Emperor Septimius Severus in Caledonia

While sailing along the north Aegean coast, the Emperor Caracallas ship is wrecked; a galea of the Imperial Misenensis Fleet rescues him, and the whole Fleet receives the title of Pia Vindex

Denarius of the Emperor Caracalla. On the obverse you can read ANTONINVS PIVS AVG (Antoninus Pius Augustus) and on the reverse, on the ship, ADVENT AVGG ( Adventus Augustorum = arrival of the emperors). The galley presents a legionary vexillum on the prow, and a standard on the stern, with three passengers seated in cabin at the stern, probably Caracalla, Geta and their father Septimius Severus. The legionary flag at the prow and the legionary standards at the stern point towards the representation of a ship involved in some military expedition. The coin celebrates the delayed arrival in Rome of Septimius Severus in the year 202 AD with his two sons Caracalla and Geta. You can clearly see this galleys double-beaked ram, another sign of its military employment. (Mint of Rome, 202 AD, private collection, photo courtesy of Forum Ancient Coins)

238251 First Gothic war; sea and land raids by the Goths and pirate activities in the Black Sea; the Legio II Adiutrix receives from the Emperor Claudius II the appellative of Constans

The Emperor Pupienus chooses Ravenna as operative base against Maximinus

The Emperor Gordian III concentrates strong naval forces in the East and defeats the Sassanians

The Misenensis Fleet suppresses an African revolt against Gallienus

Continuous naval raids by the Saxons on the west coasts of Britain

In the Persian war the usurper Balista collects ships of Cilician ports and defeats the Persians near Pompeiopolis, taking the harem of the Sassanian King Shapur I (Zon., XII, 630; Syncellus, 7, 7427,743)

262266 Moesia and Thracia under threat by the Goths; the Germanic Herulians fleet of 500 ships is destroyed by Romano-Byzantine fleet before Byzantium. The Barbarians ravage Greece, sacking Athens, Corinth, Argos and Sparta; but the Athenian leader Publius Erennius Dexippus, with 2,000 men and the help of the Roman fleet, ambushes the Barbarians on their return journey; their army and fleet are finally destroyed by the Emperor Gallienus in Thracia

Roman Hippagus , from a third-century mosaic. (Medein, Tunisia, photo courtesy of the museum)

In Gaul, during the Gallic Empire of Postumus, a flotilla is established to guard the Upper Rhenus-Danubius Limes

The Roman navarcha Probus defeats Palmyrene army before Alexandria

Second Gothic invasion by sea; Herulians, Borani, Goths and other Germanic peoples attack the Bosphorean towns under Roman control. A fleet of 2,000 ships and 320,000 men from the Danube enter Roman territory. Marcus Aurelius Claudius defeats the invaders by sea and by land. The Roman fleet is reconstructed

The Borani Goths, after having armed the Bosphorean ships and recruited conscripts from the captive sailors, ravage the Pontic coasts as far as Trapezunte; Trapezunte falls and many Roman warships are captured

The Isaurian Lidius (Palfuerius) undertakes piracy along the coasts of Asia, Pamphilia and Lycia; besieged in the city of Cremna of Pisidia by the Roman legions, Lidius does not hesitate to sacrifice men, children and women, until he is killed by a traitor who allows the Romans to enter the city

The Frankish captives settled by the Emperor Claudius II in Pontus seize a number of ships and raid Greece and Eastern Sicily, to be destroyed by the Roman fleet near Carthage

293297 Constantius Chlorus restores Imperial authority in Britain in the wars against Carausius and his successor Allectus

The Constantinian Fleet, under the command of Crispus, son of Constantine, destroys the fleet of Licinius in the waters of Byzantium, capturing the city and sinking 130 enemy ships

Naval and land campaign of Julianus against the Sassanians

Gothic attempt to cross the Hellespontus (Dardanelles) is thwarted by a Roman fleet of the Eastern Empire

The Imperial fleet of Arcadius destroys the fleet of the Gothic Magister Militum Gainas on the Marmara Sea

Start of the fifth century Pirate activity of the Mangones, slave merchants from Galatia, along the coasts of Roman Africa

419 and 438 The Emperor Theodosius II forbids the divulging of the secrets of naval carpentry, probably to avoid its spread to the rising Vandal power in North Africa

Sea and land forces sent by Theodosius II to the West

445450 2,000 conscripts shipped on warships to Alexandria from Constantinople to put down ecclesiastical disorders

The Western Emperor Majorian defeats a Vandal fleet under the command of a relative of King Genseric, near Sinuessa in Campania

The combined fleet of Eastern and Western Roman Empires is destroyed by the Vandals of Genseric in the waters off Carthage

The fleet of Justinian the Great transports the troops of Belisarius to Africa for the war against the Vandals

An Ostrogothic fleet built in Italy and led by Totila successfully supports the invasion and recapture of Corsica and Sardinia against Roman naval power, but the Imperial ships destroy the Ostrogothic ships at Sena Gallica

To My Beloved Son, Flavius Victor