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    10 views16 pages

    Hocker - Late Roman Byzantine and Islamic Galleys and Fleets

    Uploaded by

    utvrda

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 16
    Ex libris: CASTRO FiLiPe ——6§— Late Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic Galleys and Fleets CTAVIAN'S defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the batle of Actium in 31 BC marked the effective end of classical naval warfare, in which massed flets ‘of heavy, muli-banked warships faced each ‘other in set-piece battles determined by the success or failure of ramming attacks. Octavian boule a monument to his victory at nearby Nic- copolis,! where he mounted the rams sawn off the largest ships of the vanquished fleet, This wall of trophies might be seen not only a8 a testament to youthful boasting, but aso as a tombstone for 2 naval way of life. For more than half a millennium, warships had grown steadily larger and heavier, from the deri and ‘mitts of Archaic and Classical Athens through aquadriremes and quinqueremes upward to tens and sixteens, even the grand folly of a forty, built by competing Hellenistic kingdoms Jocked in an arms race for prestige and political dominance in the eastern Mediterranean. Rome, once stirred to naval effort by the Punic threat, assembied comparable Alets to support its wars of conquest against those same kingdoms But the victor of Actium, as Augustus Cae sar, eliminated the last organised challenge to Roman rue in the Mediterranean and sonsoli- dated Roman administration over the shores of the great sea. As the sole naval power in the Mediterranean, Rome had no need of great fleets or heavy warships manned by arge num: bers of men. A few larger ships were kept as flagships for the commanders of a peacetime navy, but standing battlefleets were largely re- tired, not to be seen on Mediterranean waters for almost half a millenniues. Instead, Rome concentrated on smaller ships and squadrons to patrol the sea lanes and keep an effective lid on View of Ocavien Comp Monument at Nici aommamrtig bevy ne the feof Antony tind Clapaors at ain i 31 BC. Th moon ot riginallysrnde by the re eno te pub shi ofthe ene, he ck fr rich can ‘il be sin th Ie lof masonry. (By courtesy of William M Murray) piracy or to guard the frontiers. These duties required swift, manacuvrable ships ta chase the equally swift ships of pirates and raiders, or light boats that could be rowed up and down the rivers that formed the German border. While these ships were more than adequate to deal with small, poorly organised raids or spo- radic pirate attack, they were incapable of re- sponding forcefully to larger lets; when the decline of political order led to civil war in thé third and fourth centuries, naval flets had to be cobbled together and were quickly dispersed. ‘With the collapse of western Roman admin- istration in the fifth cenrury AD, competing naval powers were free to emerge, and for 2 brief period in the fifth century, one of the invading peoples, the Vandals, was able 10 ‘establish sizeable naval presence inthe Medi terranean, Thei?piratical raids under the ener: igetic king Gaeseric became such a nuisance to trade that two naval expeditions ~ che fist of sganised Roman flet operations in nearly five centuries were sent out to pur down the bar- barians, but without great success. Ie was not ‘until the early sixth cencury that the Byzantine ‘emperor Anasthasus began the slow process of fleet organisation that led tothe large standi navy of the Byzantine Empire, with is Imperial Fleet guarding Constantinople and regional (Thematic) flees drawn from dhe principal ad- ministrative districts (Themes) of the rest of the Empire, This navy was co become essential in the seventh century with the appearance of Islam on the Mediterranean shores of Syria and Palestine, The Moslems wasted lite time in assembling theit own naval lets to challenge Byzantine dominance of the Mediterranean, and the stage was set for che return of fleet actions featuring large, heavily armed ships as Byzantiym and a succession of Islamic dynas- ties struggled for nearly four cencuries forthe naval supremacy essential to Mediterranean hegemony. Anote on the sources "The primary sources for later Roman and By, zantine naval history are almost all documen- «ary. In addition to histories by late Roman and |. Mary nd ess 198 provides hor disep ft se May sd Petes BY providers tar gee oe LATE ROMAN, BYZANTINE, AND ISLAMIC GALLEYS AND FLEETS 87 he cai lf hiphiing eb of be emit Melarances donate y ths ominot rel ‘Boving «Romano werk ate end (anh rd onary AD). Tegal tte “Arbol Maram, Rava medieval writers, and a few eyewitness ac ‘counts of particular events, we ae fortunate to haves seties of specifically naval texts? Most of. ‘our detailed information comes from tenth- ‘century sources, primarily the tactical manuals, (of Leo the Wise? and Nicephoros Ouranos,* a shorter descriptive document known as Anon PBPP ot PBPPS and a number of inventories ‘of men, ships, and equipment sent on several tenth-century'naval expeditions. There is vir~ ‘ually no iconographic or archaeological evi

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