Roman Navy

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Naval formations and war ports during the principate
Naval operations and naval battles during the Second Triumvirate 43–31 BC. Chr.
Pompey

The Roman Navy or Roman Fleet ( Latin classis Romana ) is the name given to the navy of the Roman Republic and the Empire (approx. 300 BC to 650 AD). In addition to the legions and auxiliary troops, it represented the third armed forces of the Roman military and was composed of various sea and river fleets as well as flotillas of individual legionary units and their own marine infantry units.

Free crews were generally preferred as the crew of the ships . Only in exceptional situations were slaves put on the row benches, but most of the time they were given freedom before or after their assignment. Contrary to the popular notion of chained convicts propagated by films such as Ben Hur , galley punishment was entirely unknown to convicted criminals in ancient times . It did not appear until the 15th century, particularly among the countries bordering the Mediterranean.

organization

Basics

In contrast to today, the naval forces were not viewed as an independent part of the military, but were considered part of the land army . The fleet was of comparatively little importance at all times of the Roman Empire.

To put it simply, the organizational structure of the Roman Navy can be divided into three parts, the two strategic main fleets , the provincial fleets and the so-called flotillas .

The main fleets

The two main fleets were intended to monitor the Mediterranean and, above all, to secure the Italian coast against possible attackers. They were each commanded by a ducenar prefect (that is, a prefect with an annual salary of 200,000 sesterces ) and were stationed in Misenum in the Gulf of Naples or near Ravenna ( military port of Classe ). Another important base was Aquileia .

Due to the unrestricted Roman dominance in the Mediterranean (mare nostrum) in the early and middle imperial period, these two fleets were mainly occupied with combating piracy and smuggling . The marine infantry stationed in Misenum was of particular political importance for Rome . Since no legions were allowed to be stationed in Italy until Septimius Severus , the naval troops (manipulares) were the only armed force worth mentioning near the capital Rome, which in an emergency - alongside the city ​​cohorts  - acted as a counterweight to the Imperial Guard , the powerful and fickle Praetorians , could form. Indeed, in times of crisis , the infantry of this fleet provided a strategic reserve for the Roman emperors to rely on. The seafarers found another field of activity in the Colosseum , where they were deployed on major occasions to roll out the huge awnings over the grandstands. From 330, the bases of the two main fleets were dissolved. Their units were moved to Constantinople and later formed the basis of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine fleet .

The provincial fleets

The fleets stationed in the provinces were more important for military operations: they supplied and transported the fighting units and enabled greater mobility. Even in peacetime they were an important aspect for the provincials , as a large part of the public transport - especially the supply of grain  - ran through them. With their constant presence, the provincial fleets protected private transport companies from pirates and thus favored economic development along important waterways such as the Danube . In 363, Emperor Julian still had 600 ships on the Rhine and 1100 on the Euphrates .

Larger provincial fleets were:

The flotillas

Finally there were the flotillas, small ship formations that were mainly used on larger inland waters . From 15 BC A separate flotilla on Lake Constance ( Brigantium ) has been handed down to us. Since the 4th century, the number of flotillas has increased due to the increasing need to secure inner-European rivers and lakes; for example, flotillas were set up on Lake Como and Lake Neuchâtel , and the port of Marseille was given its own warship association for defense. The most numerous were the so-called barcarii on the Danube.

history

republic

Before the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC), the Roman navy apparently consisted of only a few ships that patrolled the coasts and rivers of Italy. It is true that in 338 BC BC already won a significant naval victory over Antium, but when the battle at sea suddenly became decisive in the conflict with Carthage , the Romans initially saw themselves almost defenseless against the technologically much better equipped and nautically experienced Carthaginians (even if the sources state the superiority of the Carthaginians exaggerated). It is said that it was only when the Roman military got some Carthaginian warships into their hands that massive efforts were made to expand the navy based on the Carthaginian model. In fact, the experience of the Roman allies in the Greek-influenced Lower Italy was more likely to be decisive for the successful expansion of the Roman navy. As early as 260 BC BC this could win a significant victory over the Carthaginians in the sea ​​battle of Mylae .

The Romans also developed a new strategy in naval warfare: instead of sinking the opposing ships by ramming them, they transferred their infantry tactics to the sea. By means of a boarding bridge, the corvus , boarding crews were brought on board the opposing ships and there the fight was decided by numerical superiority. The ancient sources document high Roman losses due to shipwreck, which increased due to the construction of the boarding bridge.

Eventually the enemy fleet was forced to give in to the new Roman tactics at sea. The navy also played an important role in the two later Punic Wars. In other conquests, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, the fleets were given a prominent role. Large parts of the Roman fleet during the republic were provided by seafaring, especially Greek allies. The formally independent Rhodes played an important role .

After the Mediterranean was largely under Roman control (later it was called mare nostrum , "our sea" by the Romans ), the naval strategists had no choice but to concentrate on rampant piracy. This posed an increasing threat to the Roman economy, especially from Cilicia . But when the pirates of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus were eliminated within a few months in a systematic hunt from the far west off the coast of Hispania to their retreats and mountain forts in Cilicia, it remained Little remains to be done in the Mediterranean region at first.

The main naval operations now took place in the provinces in particular. In particular, during the conquest of Gaul by Gaius Julius Caesar and his crossings to Britain and Germania , there were major ship operations. In the only major naval battle, Decimus defeated Brutus in 56 BC. Off the coast of Aremorica north of the Loire estuary, the Venetian fleet . The two crossings to Britain in 55 and 54 BC were even more remarkable . And building a bridge over the Rhine .

Civil wars

Relief part of a tomb from the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, which was built by a citizen from Praeneste who was probably in Octavian's fleet at Actium 31 BC. Had fought victoriously

In the civil war of 48 BC At first, however, Pompey showed once again his organizational superiority and his strategic understanding of naval operations, which Caesar, cut off from his supplies and the bulk of his army in Macedonia, initially only knew how to counteract his proverbial "luck" before the combat experience of his veterans finally in the land battle at Pharsalus was the decisive factor.

After the assassination of Caesar, civil wars flared up again and again and important naval operations were carried out again, with Caesar's followers initially being clearly inferior. Sextus Pompeius in particular succeeded in following in his father's footsteps and gaining a reputation as a “ruler of the sea”. Appointed Fleet Prefect by the Senate, he initially concentrated the Roman fleet in Massilia . When he was ostracized by the Caesarians after the formation of the second triumvirate , he took possession of Sicily and cut Italy off from the grain supply. During the six-year blockade, Pompey's admirals, mostly freed former pirates from his father's entourage, fought at least six major naval battles against Octavian's ships, most of them in the Strait of Messina . Not until 36 BC Their power was broken in the naval battle of Naulochoi by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa , who introduced some technical innovations such as catapult- hurled grappling hooks with an extended iron shaft.

Some of Pompey's supporters then managed to escape to Mark Antony in the east, where they were in 31 BC. Took part in the last great naval battle of the Roman civil wars at Actium , in which the experience of Agrippa and the mobility of his smaller ships were the decisive factors against the heavy triremes of Antonius and his Egyptian allies Cleopatra VII .

Augustus

Under Augustus , after the conquest of Egypt, there were increasing demands in the Roman economy to expand trade to India . A hindrance, however, was the Arab control over every sea route to India. Accordingly, one of the first naval operations under Augustus consisted of the preparation of a campaign on the Arabian Peninsula : Aelius Gallus , Prefect of Egypt , had around 130 transporters built and shipped around 10,000 soldiers to Arabia. The subsequent march through the desert to Yemen failed, however, and the plans for control over the Arabian Peninsula had to be abandoned.

At the other end of the empire, in Germania , the navy played an important role in supplying and transporting the legions . 15 BC A separate Lake Constance flotilla was established. Later, the military, Drusus and Tiberius, made extensive use of the navy when trying to implement the Roman plan to extend the borders to the Elbe . 12 BC In BC Drusus had a large fleet of over 1000 ships built and sailed across the Rhine into the North Sea . The Frisians and Chauken had nothing to oppose the superior numbers, tactics and technique of the Romans when the Romans advanced into the mouths of the Weser and Ems . The tribes resident there had to surrender.

5 v. In the course of a military advance under Tiberius to the Elbe, Roman knowledge of the North and Baltic Seas could be significantly expanded: Pliny describes that Roman sea units passed Heligoland and ventured as far as the northeast coast of Denmark . The various marine operations north of Germania had to be largely stopped after the Varus Battle in 9 AD.

Julian-Claudian dynasty

In the years 15 and 16 Germanicus undertook several naval operations along the Rhine and as far as the Ems as part of his Germanic campaigns , but these were discontinued due to the bitter Germanic resistance and a devastating storm. In 28, the Romans also lost control of the mouth of the Rhine as a result of a revolt by the Frisians.

From 37 to 85 the Roman Navy played an eminently important role in the conquest of Britain . Above all, the classis Germanica made a name for itself through numerous landing operations.

In 46 the military made an advance across the Black Sea and even crossed the Don . In 57 an expeditionary force reached Sevastopol .

Under Nero , the navy apparently succeeded in conquering some important strategic points for the Indian trade ; however, it is not known to have its own fleet in the Red Sea . Perhaps parts of the Alexandrian fleet were active in securing the Indian trade .

In the Jewish War of 66-70, the Romans were forced to fight Jewish warships operating from a port in what is now Tel Aviv on the Israeli Mediterranean coast . At the same time there were several flotilla skirmishes on the Sea of ​​Galilee .

Flavian dynasty, adoptive emperors and Severans

During the Batavian revolt of Iulius Civilis (69-70), a squadron of the Rhine fleet fell into the hands of the rebels through treason, but the rebels were unable to use the ships for a decisive blow against the enemy fleets. The remaining ships went back into imperial hands when Civilis was defeated in the open field.

Between 82 and 85 the Romans launched a campaign against the Caledonians in what is now Scotland . In this context, the Roman Navy increased its activity on the Scottish east coast significantly. At the same time, numerous expedition and reconnaissance trips were started. During this time the Romans were able to briefly conquer the Orkney Islands and gained knowledge of the Shetland Islands . The Romans probably even landed in the Hebrides and Ireland .

Under the adoptive emperors, the navy operated mainly on rivers; so she played an important role in the conquests of Trajan in Dacia , and it was temporarily established a separate fleet for the Euphrates and Tigris . Also in the Marcomann Wars under Marcus Aurelius , numerous battles took place on the Danube and the Tisza , for example .

In the aegis of Severer the only known military operations of the Navy under found Septimius Severus instead, who in his campaigns along the Euphrates and Tigris , as well as in Scotland used. In doing so, Roman ships reached the Persian Gulf and the tip of the British archipelago.

Crisis among the soldier emperors and the tetrarchs

See also: Imperial Crisis of the 3rd Century

The navy experienced a serious crisis under the soldier emperors when, under Trebonianus Gallus , the Germans built their own powerful fleet on the Black Sea for the first time . Due to two surprise attacks (256) on Roman bases on the Caucasus and on the Danube , numerous ships fell into the hands of the Teutons. The attacks were then extended to the Aegean Sea ; Byzantium , Sparta , Athens and other cities were plundered and the provincial fleets responsible there were severely weakened. The attack could only be stopped by a tactical mistake by the attackers.

In 268 another, much more violent attack by the Germans took place. Part of the invasion fleet attacked the Mediterranean islands of Crete , Rhodes and Cyprus , the other set course for Greece . Once again the Romans had nothing to counter this onslaught. It was only when the Germanic peoples made their way inland that Claudius Gothicus was able to defeat them.

In 286, the Roman Empire faced a great threat again when the insurgent commander-in-chief of the British fleet, Carausius, brought Britain and the Gallic coastal areas under his control. Since all of Roman control over the English Channel and the North Sea had suddenly been lost, Diocletian's co-emperor Maximian was forced to raise a new northern fleet, which, however, was almost immediately destroyed by a storm due to a lack of practice. Only under the Caesar Constantius Chlorus did the navy see itself again from 293 in a position to transport Roman troops to Britain. The breakaway province was regained by a pincer attack on London .

Based on older sources, Johannes Lydos (6th century) speaks of 45,562 members of the Navy at the time of Diocletian and the other Tetrarchs.

Late antiquity (4th to 7th centuries)

As already described above, the two main fleets were then relocated to Constantinople from 330 onwards . Classical naval battles were now rare; attested for example is an important victory of Crispus over Licinius' fleet in 324. Nevertheless, the late Roman fleet was still of some importance in the 5th and 6th centuries; Mention should be made of the destruction of the Gainas ships in the year 400 and costly naval operations in the fight against the vandal Geiserich in the 5th century. Especially during the 4th century, the Rhine and Danube fleets also played an important role in securing the northern border of the empire.

A major Eastern Roman naval operation against the Vandals had to be canceled in 441 due to attacks on other fronts. There were defeats of the Roman fleet against Geiseric under Emperor Majorian off Spain (460) and especially in 468 under Emperor Anthemius off the coast of North Africa. At that time, what was probably the largest sea offensive of late antiquity failed due to the failure of the Roman leadership and the use of incendiary ships by the vandals.

When Westrom was shaken by civil wars and invasions in the 5th century, the fleet, whose maintenance could soon no longer be afforded, otherwise no longer played a decisive role. This is especially true for the years after 439, when the Vandals had in fact achieved naval control in the western Mediterranean. The fleets stationed in Ostrom, however, became the basis of the navy of the Byzantine Empire ; so this 508 attacked the coasts of the Ostrogoth Empire . In it were still under Justinian (527-565) triremes , but increasingly dromons used; Constantinople itself was protected by a fleet of Liburnians . 533 succeeded in a spectacular landing operation by imperial troops in North Africa, which led to the end of the Vandal Empire; Several hundred ships and around 30,000 sailors were involved. Shortly afterwards, the fleet also played a key role in the reconquest of Sicily. Around 550 (East) Roman ships dominated the Mediterranean again, and in 626 they played an important role in the defense of Constantinople against the Avars and Sassanids . Thirty years later, however, naval control was lost to the Muslim Arabs for some time in the Battle of Phoinix (655), and the imperial fleet was initially only sufficient to protect the capital. The Byzantine fleet finally emerged from it.

Men and officers

Diagram of a Corvus
Roman trireme (mosaic, Tunisia)
Trireme
Model of a Roman bireme
Roman river liburnal
Late antiquity Navis Iusoria, (river combat ship) in the Museum of Ancient Shipping
The Regina , the replica of a Navis lusoria by the University of Regensburg on a trip on the Franconian Brombachsee

The crew (classiari / classici) on Roman ships was divided into two groups, the nautical personnel and the marine infantry. Their service time was 26 years (legionnaires 20 to 25 years), from the 3rd century 28 years, occasionally one knows of even longer service periods. After their honorable discharge ( honesta missio ) , they were compensated with money or land and were usually granted citizenship. They were not allowed to marry until after their active service had ended.

Sailors

According to Ulpian ( in classibus omnes remiges et nautae milites sunt , Digesta 37,13,1,1) the rowers ( remiges ) and seamen (nautae) were considered full-fledged soldiers (milites) , in contrast to conventional seamen, and were responsible for their work carefully trained. They had to be personally free, but in contrast to the legionnaires, they did not have to have Roman citizenship (they were given this if they were released if they were honored). The subunctor distributed olive oil to the crew, which protected against sunburn. Rowers and nautical personnel did not usually take part in the fighting, but this will have been inevitable on the smaller river combat ships, i. H. these boats were probably rowed (especially in late antiquity) by the marines themselves.

The victimarius and the coronarius were responsible for religious matters . The former organized the slaughter of the sacrificial animals. The latter had to take care of the ship's jewelry and the cult of the ship's deity (tutela navis) before making a sacrifice . They were selected from the seafaring staff and only appeared on festive days, otherwise they performed their normal on-board service.

The group of higher batches ( principales ) of the rudder master counted ( celeusta or pausarias ); he had authority over the rowers, selected them and was also responsible for their training. His most important assistant was the clock ( symphonieacus od. Pituli ), who belonged to the lower level of the crew and specified the belt beat by beating a drum ( tympanum ) or flute. On transport ships, a batsman (portisculus) took on this task with his bat . On a navis lusoria , the typical late antique river battle ship, it was called praeco .

Another NCO, the sailing master (velarius duplicarius) was responsible for the sails; The ship's carpenter (faber navalis) was also one of the duplicarii (= double pay).

The right hand of the ship's commander was the beneficiarius trierarchi , he took care of the administrative and logistic tasks and could be found on every Roman warship from the Liburnian upwards. He was assisted in turn by the secutor trierarchi , a paymaster (scriba trierarchi) , a ship's clerk (exceptor) and his assistant (librarius) . The existence of medical personnel (medicus duplicarius) in the Roman fleets is also proven by grave inscriptions .

The other nautical staff included the understeer (proreta) , who on board corresponded to about the rank of second officer. He was on watch, essentially responsible for the forecastle (prora) and also the navigation. During a battle, the entire seafaring personnel was under his control. He was also responsible for managing maintenance work on his ship.

The most important nautical officer was the helmsman (gubernator) who was the same as the chief officer. His place was aft where the skipper was. However, the rudders were not operated by the helmsman himself, but by one or two helmsmen (depending on the size of the ship) who were selected from the rowers.

The ship's commander was referred to as trierarchus , derived from the Greek Trierarch (the outfitter of a trireme ). He had absolute authority over ship and crew. The centurio classicus , the commander of the marine infantry, was his rank. In all nautical matters, however, the trierarchus had the final decision-making power. He is also known as the commander of smaller naval stations. Since the 2nd century he was equal to the centurion of the land army. From the 3rd century the trierarchus disappears from the sources. It is replaced by nauarchus , whose title is also derived from the Greek.

The nauarchus was originally the commander of a flotilla or sometimes the commander of the flagship. From the 3rd century he sank to a simple ship commander. In addition to Roman citizens, this rank was also held by foreigners (peregrini) who were granted Roman citizenship after their period of service. Many released were also among these ranks. From the reign of Vespasian (69–79) these positions were only filled with Roman citizens.

The flotilla chief was the nauarchus princeps or nauarchus archigybernes . It corresponds roughly to the rank of a present day rear admiral. Since the early 2nd century he was equated in rank with a legionary centurion.

In the 3rd century, the rank of tribune was created (tribunus classis) , which took over the duties of the flotilla commander from the 1st Nauarch. Later it was called tribunus liburnarum (= tribune of warships). He was the highest ranking tactical officer, a Roman citizen and came from the knighthood (eques) .

Marine infantry

The simple Roman marine soldier was called manipularius , marini, or milites classicorum . Epibeta was a very rarely used term for a naval soldier during the Roman Empire. It specifically describes the marine soldier in contrast to the crew members entrusted with nautical tasks. The marine infantry was responsible for operating the guns and other ordnance on board as well as conducting the boarding battle according to the rules of land war. They were embarked for each operation and were barracked in the naval stations. Depending on how they were used, they also received special weapons training:

  • hoplites (heavy infantryman),
  • artifex (artilleryman),
  • funditor (slinger),
  • sagittarius (archer)

The ranks roughly correspond to those of the land army:

  • tiro (recruit),
  • manipularius (commoner),
  • immunis (private),
  • duplicarius (double mercenary ),
  • dolator ( ax man , he cut the ropes from enemy grappling hooks),
  • discens epibeta / circitor (NCO, leader of 10 men [ manipulus ]),
  • custos armorum (armorer)

Principales :

  • suboptio navalorum (NCOs, in Landsheer tesserarius )
  • optio ballistariorium (gun master),
  • vexillarius (standard bearer, also led smaller tactical units),
  • signifer ,
  • aquilifer ( eagle carrier ),
  • optio spei (Deputy of the ship's centurion )

The optiones also supported the commander of the marines with administrative and tactical tasks. A centuria classica corresponded numerically to a centurion of the land army. The centurio classicus commanded the entire marine infantry of a warship. The centurion was the largest tactical unit, there were no cohorts in the fleet. The fleet centurion was an officer and was also the highest rank among the marines. But he received less pay than his colleagues in the army.

The signal transmitters ( aeneatores ) also belonged to the marine infantry. They were divided into the horn players ( cornicen ) and the tuba players ( tubicen ) . On Triremen there was also a third man for this, the trumpeter ( bucinator ) . They were mostly only to be found on the ship of the fleet commander. Their task was the acoustic transmission of commands for the attack, the casting off of the lines, casting off maneuvers, changing of the guard, etc.

The legions stationed in Noricum and Pannonia apparently had their own naval departments from late antiquity. Confirmation of this is provided by the Notitia Dignitatum . Among other things, it lists legions and their garrison locations for the late antiquity that were under the command of a Dux . Some of these units also have Liburnarii . These marines were named after their barge-like boats (Liburnae) , performed mainly the tasks of pioneers and were used for patrol trips .

Fleet command

In the republic, various magistrates could be naval commanders, such as consuls, praetors or promagistrates, but also legates or prefects . During the imperial era, each provincial fleet was subordinate to a praefectus classis , which was subordinate to the governor of the respective province. He was not responsible for tactical leadership; he mostly had administrative tasks. The classis Germanica and the classis Britannica ranked ahead of all other provincial fleets. Their prefects had mostly held the office of procurator beforehand .

For the fleets of Misenum, Ravenna and Alexandria, a sub-prefect (subpraefectus) is documented, who stood by the fleet-prefect as chief of staff and deputy.

The praepositus classis , who also took independent commands, was ranked under the prefect . Usually two of these officers belonged to each fleet.

The above officers each had their own staff with their adjutants. The most senior of them was the cornicularius , a kind of head of the office (officium) who oversaw the beneficiarii or officiales (clerks, logisticians, bookkeepers, staff guards, construction technicians, etc.).

Ship types and development

Compared to the Greeks and Carthaginians , the Romans were initially not great shipbuilders; they took over their ideas and constructions and developed them further. The first Roman fleet, which was built at the beginning of the 1st Punic War, consisted of copies of a Carthaginian quinquereme stranded in Sicily . Before that, the Roman state had no warships of its own, apart from a few smaller ships from its Italian allies.

The only real innovation introduced by the Roman technicians during the 1st Punic War shows that the strength of the Roman military lay in land combat: the quinquereme with a corvus ("raven"), an eight-meter-high pole, on one swiveling, twelve-meter-long bridge with an iron spur attached at the end. As soon as the Quinquereme got close enough to an enemy ship, the crew dropped the bridge onto it so that the marines could storm and board the enemy ship . However, the corvus was apparently abandoned after a short time, as it made the ships dangerously unstable in rough seas.

Another peculiarity of the Roman fleets during the late republic were the capital ships, extremely stable and tall ships, which, however, were not built for sea combat. With these ships, which were difficult to ram and barely boarded, large numbers of soldiers and heavy military equipment could be transported. The catapults mounted on these ships could inflict severe damage on enemy units.

The sails were presumably primarily used for locomotion, the rowers mainly for maneuvering and in calm conditions.

During the imperial era, the Roman fleet consisted mainly of the following types of ships:

  • Triremes (medium weight, dreirangige battleships)
  • Liburnians (light combat ships) with two rows of rowers, modeled on an Illyrian type of ship,
  • naves actuariae (fleet transporter).

In late antiquity, the ship types with several rows of oars (trireme, liburnian) were largely out of use and were replaced by ships with a single-row design (e.g. Navis lusoria ).

Navigational Techniques in the Roman Navy

In the early days of ancient maritime shipping, people stayed as close as possible to the coastline . It was based on eye-catching landmarks , avoiding danger spots such as shoals , rocks or sandbanks by traditional knowledge and insights from our own observations. The stone plumb bob was also used to measure the water depth . Furthermore, the changing seasonal wind conditions were given an important orientation. The orientation on the course of the coast or the visible stars became extremely problematic in invisible weather with heavy rain or thick fog . Since stormy weather conditions increased in the Mare Mediterraneum in the winter months , ancient seafaring was mostly restricted to the months between the beginning of April and mid-November. Simple astronomical navigation , the position of the sun and the moon, and stargazing were also important. During the night the Big Dipper was used . All of this only applies to the sky in the northern hemisphere . When a vertical stick ( gnomon ) cast the shortest shadow in calm seas , it was noon. In this direction was also north , opposite then south and at right angles to it east or west .

swell

Important ancient sources on the Roman Navy are:

The main source for the late antique navy is the Notitia Dignitatum , in which, among other things, the most important naval bases of the late imperial era are named.

literature

Web links

Commons : Roman Navy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Except for a possible case in Ptolemaic Egypt . Lionel Casson: Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1971, pp. 325-326 .
  2. ↑ Caesar, Gallic War 3, 7-16.
  3. ↑ Appian, Civil Wars 5,91 , 5,106f and 5, 118–120 .
  4. ↑ Christine Hofmann: The sea voyage of the apostle Paul to Rome. The shipwreck and the stranding of Paul on the island Μελίτη against the background of the Roman imperial seafaring. University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 2007, p. 20 [1]
  5. ^ Gudrun Wolfschmidt: Navigare necesse est - History of Navigation: Book accompanying the 2008/09 exhibition in Hamburg and Nuremberg. Vol. 14 Nuncius Hamburgensis, Books on Demand, 2008, ISBN 3-8370-3260-4
  6. ^ Holger Sonnabend: Man and landscape in antiquity: Lexicon of historical geography. JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02179-3 , pp. 217-219
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 18, 2005 .