Roman
Peoples of Roman North Africa
Mauri The western region of North Africa was home to Berber-speaking groups whom the Greeks and later Romans identified as Mauri, or Moors. The term probably comes from a generic designation of Numidian tribes operating in the Atlas Mountains and West Africa in modern-day Morocco. The Romans took over the region and made it into the provinces of Mauretania Caesariensis,…
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The Roman Navy: Masters of the Mediterranean
By Richard GabrielIn 31 bc the last two great generals of the Roman civil wars faced each other at Actium off the coast of Greece in a naval battle that would settle the future of Rome. For months Mark Antony and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra had tried in vain to break…
THE ROMAN IMPERIALÂ NAVY
After Actium, as we have seen, Augustus concentrated his ships at two bases, Misenum and Ravenna, to watch the western and eastern Mediterranean. These two ports continued to be the chief bases of the Roman fleets for three centuries or more. Under the Empire, the fleets had, we may think,…
Syrian-Roman War (192–189 B.C.E.)
PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: Syria (Seleucids) vs. Rome (with Rhodes and Pergamum) PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): Asia Minor DECLARATION: Rome on Syria, 192 B.C.E. MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: Syria wanted Rome’s compliance in the conquests of its ally Aetolia. OUTCOME: Rome attacked a Syrian fleet, triggering a war that proved disastrous for the Syrians,…
NAVAL OPERATIONS ON THE RHINE, 357Â AD
1: Alaman warrior This reconstruction follows the rich graves of the Rhine border and the descriptions of the ancient authors. Ammianus describes long, thick hair dyed red with natural substances. The narrow, long-sleeved woollen tunic is decorated with trim in red-purple silk. Note his woollen close-fitting trousers, and typical Germanic…
MISENUM – Portus Julius
A small promontory jutting into the Tyrrhenian Sea from the coast of Campania in Italy on the Bay of Naples. Misenum was situated in the region of Cumae, Bauli, Baiae and Puteoli. Its name was derived supposedly from Misenus, the trumpeter of Aeneas, who drowned in the waters of its…
ROMAN PATROL BOATS.
Excavations on the site of the Mainz Hilton discovered eleven fast patrol boats of the Roman navy, which must have been used for defending the Rhine frontier. Tree-ring dating of one boat shows that it was constructed in the 370s, and repaired with wood cut in 385 and again in…