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Map of the Roman fleets and major naval bases during the Principate. After the end of the civil wars, Augustus reduced and reorganized the Roman armed forces, including the navy.
Roman fleet was named in ancient Rome as clasis. Its main centres were in Ravenna and Misenum, and smaller ones in some coastal provinces and on the Rhine and Danube. Seamen were recruited from the lowest sections of Roman society, even from slaves.
The structural history of the Roman military concerns the major transformations in the organization and constitution of ancient Rome's armed forces, "the most effective and long-lived military institution known to history."
13 kwi 2014 · These fleets allowed Rome to quickly respond to any military needs throughout the Roman Empire and to supply the army in its various campaigns. In truth though, there was no real naval competition to Rome's fleets.
Between the Battle of Mylae in 260 bc (when Rome defeated Carthage off the north coast of Sicily) and the Battle of Myonnesus in 190 (when Rome defeated the Seleucid navy off the west coast of Asia Minor), the Romans established naval domination over the whole Mediterranean.
The Romans entered naval warfare relatively late compared to their achievements on land. After securing a vast territory in Italy and defeating their last significant nearby threat, the Samnites, they became embroiled in a bitter conflict with the Carthaginians.
Besides supporting Augustus’s expansion of the Empire into the Red Sea and Crimea and to the line of the Danube, the navy kept the trade pathways clear of pirates. It is difficult to overstate the strategic impact of this: Roman naval power made it safe to trade throughout the Empire and beyond.
