Naval battles

[Keith]

Having searched and browsed through some of the other threads that have this mentioned in them, I thought this should have its own thread.

True the Romans were not great sailors. After they expanded their empire the only thing they had worry about were pirates. However, there were stages of the Empire's history where naval battles were fought.

Battle of the Lipari Islands, 260 BC - Minor Carthaginian victory. (Lipara harbour, 260 BC) was the first encounter between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, fought during the First Punic War. The Carthaginian victory was a result of an ambush, rather than an actual battle.

The Battle of Mylae 260 BC - During the First Punic War, off the coast of Mylae, Sicily, and was the first real naval battle between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic. The result was a decisive Roman victory.

The Battle of Sulci 258 BC - Between the Roman and Carthagenian navys of the coast near the town of Sulci. It was a minor Roman victory, obtained by consul Gaius Sulpicius Paterculus.

The Battle of Tyndaris 257 BC - Tyndaris was a Sicilian town founded as a Greek colony in 396 BC located on the high ground overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Gulf of Patti. Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, allowed Tyndaris to become a base for the Carthaginians; however, after this battle, which took place in the waters between Tyndaris and the Aeolian Islands, with Marcus Atilius Regulus at the command of the Roman fleet, the town fell to Rome. Hiero II subsequently became a faithful ally of Rome.

The battle of Cape Ecnomus 256 BC - A naval battle between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, fought during the First Punic War. Due to the amount of ships and crews involved (about 100 rowers and 150 combat troops per ship), this battle was the largest naval battle of the ancient world, and by some definitions the largest naval battle in history.

The Battle of Drepana or Drepanum 249 BC - A naval battle between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, fought during the First Punic War. The result was the only naval battle won by Carthage in the conflict.


Battle of the Aegates (Egadi) Islands, 241 BC - This battle was off Sicily and a Roman victory (c 200 ships) against Carthage (c 170 ships), which concluded the First Punic War. Ca 50-60 ships were sunk during the battle that lasted ca 4 hours.

The Selucid Fleet 191 BC - Commanded by Hannibal fighting his last battle. Roman victory.

The Battle of the Eurymedon 190 BC - Between Roman forces and a Seleucid fleet. The Seleucids were led by the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal, who had gone into exile in the events following the Battle of Zama. The Romans were victorious, and Hannibal was forced to flee to Crete as a result of the political fallout from his loss. He would never again return to the field.

The Battle of Myonessus 190 BC - Between a Seleucid Empire fleet and a Roman plus Rhodian fleet, within the war of Rome against Antiochus III the Great for the domination over Greece. The Romans were victorious.

The Battle of Actium - This was the Roman victory at Actium against Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC. 350 enemy ships were captured. From them, about 35 bronze rams were taken to decorate the Actian Naval Monument. The rams are now gone from the monument, but the fittings are still there.

The Battle of Naulochus 36 BC - Between the fleets of Sextus Pompeius and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, off Naulochus cape, Sicily. The victory of Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, marked the end of the Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate.

Otho vs. Vitellis 69 AD - The fleet supported emperor Otho against the usurper Vitellius.

The Battle of the Hellespont 324 AD - Between a Constantinian fleet led by Flavius Julius Crispus and a larger fleet loyal to Licinius. Despite being outnumbered, Crispus won the day.

468 AD - The Vandal fleet overpowers the navy of Leo I of the Byzantine
Empire.

The Romans had ten fleets, 2 major and 8 minor ones.

The two major fleets, which controlled the Mare Nostrum, were:

• Classis Misenensis;
• Classis Ravennatis.

Provincial fleets:

• Classis Britannica controlled the English Channel and the waters around Britannia
• Classis Germanica controlled the Rhine river, and was a fluvial fleet
• Classis Pannonica controlled the Danibe river, and was a fluvial fleet
• Classis Moesica controlled the western Black sea
• Classis Pontica controlled the southern Black sea
• Classis Syriaca controlled the eastern Mediterranean sea
• Classis Alexandrina controlled the eastern Mediterranean sea
• Classis Mauretania controlled the African coasts of western Mediterranean sea

Classis Misenensis was formed, among the others, by the following ships[1]:

• 1 esareme: Ops
• 1 quinqueremes: Victoria
• 9 quadriremes: Fides, Vesta, Venus, Minerva, Dacicus, Fortuna, Annona, Libertas, Olivus
• 50 triremes: Concordia, Spes, Mercurius, Iuno, Neptunus, Asclepius, Hercules, Lucifer, Diana, Apollo, Venus, Perseus, Salus, Athenonix, Satyra, Rhenus, Libertas, Tigris, Oceanus, Cupidus, Victoria, Taurus, Augustus, Minerva, Particus, Eufrates, Vesta, Aesculapius, Pietas, Fides, Danubius, Ceres, Tibur, Pollux, Mars, Salvia, Triunphus, Aquila, Liberus Pater, Nilus, Caprus, Sol, Isis, Providentia, Fortuna, Iuppiter, Virtus, Castor
• 11 liburnians: Aquila, Agathopus, Fides, Aesculapius, Iustitia, Virtus, Taurus Ruber, Nereis, Clementia, Armata, Minerva

It looks like there is plenty of material there to justify a naval segment to the game.

[MarkDuffy]

Originally Posted by Keith

It looks like there is plenty of material there to justify a naval segment to the game.

Absolutely!

If it was good enough for AOE: ROR, it is good enough for C4!

[mad_genius]

I agree. It is a thing to be included in C4. Even a previous CB game had it. If you remeber, Pharaoh had warships and naval city defense. It also had transport ships to carry soldiers.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by mad_genius

I agree. It is a thing to be included in C4. Even a previous CB game had it. If you remeber, Pharaoh had warships and naval city defense. It also had transport ships to carry soldiers.

Yes, but CotN didn't have any actual warfare involving ships or troops for that matter. I hope that is not the case in Caesar IV. I'd love to see actual naval battles included with some degree of intelligent AI and player control.

[Keith]

"The Romans launched the siege of Syracuse with sixty of these ships. Polybius wrote: "Meanwhile Marcellus was attacking the quarter of Arcradina from the sea with sixty quinqueremes, each vessel being filled with archers, slingers and javelin-throwers, whose task was to drive the defenders from the battlements." Fig.1 & 2.

Greece and Rome at War" by Peter Connolly, Macdonald Phoebus Ltd, London, 1981 (page 271).

"The boarding plank (the "corvus" or "beak") was used to board an enemy ship. It was not used during the siege of Syracuse. The siege tower illustrated in Fig. 47 is a bit more elaborate that the scaling ladder described by Polybius, Livy, and Plutarch."

Length: c120 ft (c37 m)
Beam: 14 ft (4 m) hull; c17 ft (5 m) outrigger
Draught: c4.5 ft (1.4 m)
Crew: Oarmen: Upper 112, Middle 108, Lower 50; Sailors: 30; Marines 40 (normal), 120 (war time)

"Notice that if the top of the wall of Syracuse were, say, 40 feet above sea level, then a quinquereme would be three times as long. If the bow of the ship were raised to the top of the wall by a machine, the ship would be tilted at an angle of about 20 degrees. (The exact angle depends on how much the stern sinks when the bow is raised.) If the top of the wall were 60 feet above sea level, the angle would be about 30 degrees." Fig. 3 - 5

"Warfare in the Classical World", by John Warry, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1995 (pages 118-119).

[Keith]

The trireme is a mediterranean rowing warship crewed by slaves, The Roman Legionaries used the ship to ram its enemys and had a boarding bridge called "Raven". With its rowers it could reach a speed of 6 knots (11kmh)

During the Hellenistic period, the trireme was largely supplanted by larger galleys, especially the quinquereme. The numbers did not refer to additional banks of oars, but to the number of rowers per vertical section, with multiple men on an oar. This change was accompanied by an increased reliance on tactics like boarding and using warships as platforms for artillery.

Triremes and smaller vessels continued to be employed, however. Only the poorest states would use them as the core of their navy, but lightened versions were often used as auxiliaries, and were quite effective against the heavier ships thanks to their greater maneuverability. With the rise of Rome, the larger warships became unnecessary, and by Imperial times the fleet had relatively few of them. Instead it was centered around triremes, very similar to those used by the Athenians, and even lighter Liburnians, which had only one or two banks of oars but were different in
construction to earlier pentekonters and biremes. The latter would become the basis for the Byzantine dromon and other Medieval galleys.