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Navis Actuaria
An ''actuaria'' (plural: ''actuariae''; a short form of ''navis actuaria'', "ship that moves") was a type of merchant galley used primarily for trade and transport throughout the Roman Empire. In Greek, they were also known by the term ''akatos'' (ἄκατος; plural: ''akatoi''). The ''actuaria'' was equipped with sails as well as oars. It was more expensive to operate than merchant sailing ships, and was used where speed and reliability were prioritized. It could carry both passengers and wares such as honey, cheese, meat, and even live animals intended for gladiator combat.Casson, Lionel, "Merchant Galleys", pp. 119–123 in Morrison & Gardiner (1995) Variants of the ''actuaria'' were used as troop transports, for example in the invasion of Britain. In 47 BC, Publius Vatinius equipped ''actuariae'' at Brindisi with temporary rams to support Julius Caesar's forces in Illyricum, on the other side of the Adriatic, though these were only suitable to combat smaller enemy vessels. ...
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Galley
A galley is a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars. Galleys were historically used for naval warfare, warfare, Maritime transport, trade, and piracy mostly in the seas surrounding Europe. It developed in the Mediterranean world during Classical antiquity, antiquity and continued to exist in various forms until the early 19th century. It typically had a long, slender hull, shallow draft (hull), draft, and often a low freeboard (nautical), freeboard. Most types of galleys also had sails that could be used in favourable winds, but they relied primarily on oars to move independently of winds and currents or in battle. The term "galley" originated from a Greek term for a small type of galley and came in use in English from about 1300. It has occasionally been used for unrelated vessels with similar military functions as galley but which were not Mediterranean in origin, such as medieval Scandinavian longships, 16th-century Ghali (ship), Acehnese ghalis and 18th-century North ...
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Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of effective sole rule in 27 BC. The Western Roman Empire, western empire collapsed in 476 AD, but the Byzantine Empire, eastern empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By 100 BC, the city of Rome had expanded its rule from the Italian peninsula to most of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilised by List of Roman civil wars and revolts, civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the Wars of Augustus, victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching military power () and the new title of ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' ...
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Sailing Ship
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on Mast (sailing), masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing Square rig, square-rigged or Fore-and-aft rig, fore-and-aft sails. Some ships carry square sails on each mast—the brig and full-rigged ship, said to be "ship-rigged" when there are three or more masts. Others carry only fore-and-aft sails on each mast, for instance some schooners. Still others employ a combination of square and fore-and-aft sails, including the barque, barquentine, and brigantine. Early sailing ships were used for river and coastal waters in Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean. The Austronesian peoples developed maritime technologies that included the fore-and-aft crab-claw sail and with catamaran and outrigger boat, outrigger hull configurations, which enabled the Austronesian expansion into the islands of the Indo-Pacific. This expansion originated in Ta ...
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Gladiator
A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death. Irrespective of their origin, gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome's martial ethics and, in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world. The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate. There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential feature of politics and social life in the ...
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Roman Conquest Of Britain
The Roman conquest of Britain was the Roman Empire's conquest of most of the island of Great Britain, Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain (most of what is now called England and Wales) by AD 87, when the Stanegate was established. The conquered territory became the Roman Roman Britain, province of Britannia. Following Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain in 54 BC, some southern British chiefdoms had become Roman client kingdoms in Britain, allies of the Romans. The exile of their ally Verica gave the Romans a pretext for invasion. The Roman army was recruited in Roman Italy, Italia, Hispania, and Gaul and used the newly-formed fleet ''Classis Britannica''. Under their general Aulus Plautius, the Romans pushed inland from the southeast, defeating the Britons in the Battle of the Medway. By AD 47, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. ...
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Publius Vatinius
Publius Vatinius was a Roman politician during the last decades of the Republic. He served as a Caesarian-allied plebeian tribune in the year 59 – he was the tribune that proposed the law giving Caesar his Gallic command – and later fought on that side of the civil war. Caesar made him consul in 47 BC; he later fought in Illyricum for the Caesarians and celebrated a triumph for his victories there in 42 BC. Biography Many details about Vatinius' life emerge from Cicero's claims, which "must be taken with a grain of salt and understood as a piece of rhetorical invective, in which an orator would do anything to discredit his opponent, including the use of half-truths and exaggerations". Early political life Vatinius did not appear to have had consular ancestors, making him a '' novus homo''. His first recorded position was a quaestorship in 63 BC, the same year Marcus Tullius Cicero was consul. He was elected last to the quaestorship. Cicero claims he was allot ...
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Brindisi
Brindisi ( ; ) is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an essential role in trade and culture due to its strategic position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city remains a major port for trade with the Balkan Peninsula, Greece and the Middle East. Its industries include agriculture, chemical works, and the generation of electricity. From September 1943 to February 1944, Brindisi was the provisional government seat of the Kingdom of Italy, meaning that the city has been one of the 5 capitals in the history of Italy. Etymology The name comes from the Latin , through the Greek , is a corruption of the Messapic language, Messapian , meaning "head of the deer", and probably referring to the shape of the natural harbour. It is related to Albanian language, Albanian bri, brî - pl. Brini zi (black horn) brirë, brinë ("horn"; " ...
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Naval Ram
A ram on the bow of ''Olympias'', a modern reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme A naval ram is a weapon fitted to varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. The weapon comprised an underwater prolongation of the bow of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between in length. This would be driven into the hull of an enemy ship to puncture, sink or disable it. Antiquity It was possibly developed in late Bronze Age Egypt, but it only became widely used in later Iron Age Mediterranean galleys. The ram was a naval weapon in the Greek/ Roman antiquity and was used in such naval battles as Salamis and Actium. Naval warfare in the Mediterranean rarely used sails, and the use of rams specifically required oarsmen rather than sails in order to maneuver with accuracy and speed, and particularly to reverse the movement of a ramming ship to disentangle it from its sinking victim, lest it be pulled down when its victim sank. The Athenians were especially known fo ...
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Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil war, a civil war. He subsequently became Roman dictator, dictator from 49 BC until Assassination of Julius Caesar, his assassination in 44 BC. Caesar played a critical role in Crisis of the Roman Republic, the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. In 60 BC, Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, an informal political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass political power were opposed by many in the Roman Senate, Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the private support of Cicero. Caesar rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic through a string of military victories in the G ...
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Illyricum (Roman Province)
Illyricum was a Roman province that existed from 27 BC to sometime during the reign of Vespasian (69–79 AD). The province comprised the regions of Illyria/Dalmatia in the south and Pannonia in the north. Illyria included the area along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland mountains. Pannonia included the northern plains that now are part of Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. Illyricum included part or all of the territories of today's Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. Name and etymology The term Illyrians was used to describe the inhabitants of the area as far back as the late 6th century BC by Hecataeus of Miletus. Geography Illyria/Dalmatia stretched from the Drin (river), River Drin (in modern northern Albania) to Istria (Croatia) and the River Sava in the north. The area roughly corresponded to modern northern Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and coastal Croatia (Dalmatiae). Pa ...
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Germanicus
Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was a Roman people, Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the Patrician (ancient Rome), patrician ''gens Claudia''. The Victory title, agnomen ''Germanicus'' was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the ''gens Julia'', another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the ''Julii Caesares'' was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Au ...
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