Navalia

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Navalia referred to both ship houses and shipyards among the Romans .

Shipyards

With the Greeks, shipyards were private shipbuilding companies ( ναυπήγια ), which mainly built merchant ships. The state also awarded contracts for the construction of warships to such shipyards.

The Romans had state war yards (actually " slipways "), for example when the Agrippa 37 BC was built. In Portus Iulius in the bay of Misenum . There were also shipyards at the later war ports of Misenum and Classis near Ravenna .

Ship houses

The ship houses ( Greek  νεώρια ) are first mentioned by the Greeks by Herodotus (3.45.4). Originally wooden buildings for one ship each, later stone buildings with box-like rooms for one or two ships each. The width of such a passage ( νεώροικος ) was based on the larger ships (width about 6.5 m, length about 40 m in Athens , 20 m in Pyrrha on Lesbos ). The ships were pulled to the dry using a ramp rising flat out of the water.

Navalia must have existed in all ports where warships were permanently stationed. The warships could be stored in them for longer periods of time, and if the peace lasted for a very long time, they first had to be made seaworthy again with some effort. There was therefore no Navalia for merchant ships, as these were not shut down for long periods of time.

The Romans did not change anything essential in the architecture and organization, as can be seen from the paintings and coins.

Skeuotheken

To the Navalia related arsenals ( σκευοθήκη ) were designated as Skeuothek . The most famous building of this type is the Skeuothek des Philon in Piraeus . Other skeuotheques have come down to us from Miletus and Pergamon .

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