Michael Pitassi

The particular value of this book is that the author does a good job of collecting the scraps and fragments we know about Classical Roman warships and gives you a coherent picture of how they developed and how they probably functioned. Also charming are the models that Pitassi has built of these vessels; especially the larger varieties that provoke endless speculation.

I do not envy modern writers of ancient-history--the source material is difficult to translate precisely and the temporal distance makes context difficult to define. This goes doubly so for historians of ancient military technology where not only are the textual depictions so imprecise, but also surviving imagery requires much artistic interpretation. Yet author Michael Pitassi makes a brave effort to do just that--describing the navies of Republican and Imperial Rome over a span of more show more than eight centuries.

This 224-page book, published by Seaforth in 2012, depicts the history, organization, ships, personnel, and operations of a navy whose accomplishments would not be paralleled for another thirteen centuries with the maturation of Great Britain's Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era. The author divides his book into ten parts, each part consisting of from 2-4 chapters. Part I introduces the subject and provides a quick history of Rome's navies along with a chronology of significant events. Part II describes the ships that made up the two navies, how they were built, and how they were armed and equipped, while Part III speaks to the organization of the navies, from the highest level of command down to individual ships.

Part IV talks about naval personnel--how men were recruited, trained, and equipped, while Part V details the naval life for these sailors and marines. Part VI is titled Seamanship, but the author includes more information than simply how a galley operated. Pitassi includes details about the elaborate shore establishment Rome maintained for its navies. Part VII is about Roman naval operations, providing examples from both the period of the Republic and of the Empire, while Part VIII is about Roman naval tactics (little different from the Hellenistic era) and the role of geography and topography in galley warfare.

Part IX addresses the allied navies with which the Roman navies operated, while Part X does the same with Rome's enemies. The author kindly provides an appendix detailing how he models the ships of Rome's navies that I very much appreciate. Interestingly the author notes that he tends to build small scale (usually 1/300 scale) models, as this is not as demanding of details which are difficult to confirm for these ships.

Overall, this is a great effort on a subject not many authors have the moxie to take on. Roman history depends upon Latin language interpretation, a notoriously difficult task, especially when it comes to technical terms--modern interpretations lack the necessary contexts. There are no surviving inboard/outboard profiles for these ships--surviving depictions are those of artists--painters, mosaic builders, and sculptors--whose own interpretations often make no sense to the modern viewer. An example of the problem can be seen in the depiction of the corvus, the innovative boarding ramp that allowed Roman marines to attack enemy galleys hand-to-hand. One of Pitassi's drawings show a corvus-equipped quinquereme of the First Punic War without the towering, curving stem decoration that was common on both Hellenistic and Roman galleys. Pitassi makes the logical conclusion that such a construction was necessary for effective deployment of the corvus, but this interpretation is at odds with just about every other modern image of corvus-equipped galleys.

For someone interested in developing a reasonable understanding of Roman navies, it would be difficult to make a better choice of reading. Highly recommended! show less