Ravenna, A Study | Page 9

Ravenna was to be. In that affair we find Ravenna already
established as a naval port apparently subsidiary, on that coast, to
Brundusium, as Misenum was upon the Tyrrhene sea to Puteoli; and
there Octavianus built ships.
It was not, however, till Octavianus, his enemies one and all disposed
of, had made himself emperor at last, that, on the establishment and
general regulation of his great government, he chose Ravenna as the
major naval port of Italy upon the east, even as he chose Misenum upon
the west.
Octavianus had learned two things, certainly, in the wars he had fought
to establish himself in the monarchy his great-uncle had founded. He
had learned the necessity and the value of sea power, and he had
understood the unique position of Ravenna in relation to the East and
the West. That he had been able to appreciate both these facts is enough
to mark him as the great man he was.
Julius Caesar, for all his mighty grasp of reality, had not perceived the
enormous value, nay the necessity, of sea power, and because of this
failure his career had been twice nearly cut short; at Ilerda, where the
naval victory of Decimus Brutus over the Massiliots alone saved him;
and at Alexandria. Both the liberators and Antony had possessed ships;
but both had failed to use them with any real effect. It was Sextus

Pompeius who forced Octavianus to turn to the sea, and when
Octavianus became Augustus he did not forget the lesson. Sole master
of the Mediterranean and of all its ships of war, he understood at once
how great a support sea power offered him and his principate. Nor was
the empire, while it was vigorous, though always fearful of and averse
from the sea, ever to forget the power that lay in that command.
Thus it was that among the first acts of Augustus was the establishment
of two fleets, as we might say, "in being" in the Mediterranean; the
fleet of Misenum and the fleet of Ravenna; the latter with stations
probably at Aquileia, Brundusium, the Piraeus, and probably
elsewhere.
The fleet of Ravenna was, certainly after A.D. 70, probably about A.D.
127, entitled Praetoria. The origin of this title is unknown, but it was
also borne by the fleet of Misenum and it distinguishes the Italian from
the later Provincial fleets, the former being in closer relation to the
emperor, just as the Praetorian cohorts were distinguished from the
legions.
The emperor was, of course, head of all the fleets, which were, each of
them, commanded by a prefect and sub-prefect appointed by him; and
if we may judge from the recorded promotions we have, it would seem
that the Misenate prefect ranked before the Ravennate and both before
the Provincial. But in the general military system the navy stood lowest
in respect of pay and position. The fleets were manned by freed men
and foreigners who could not obtain citizenship until after twenty-six
years' service. We find Claudius employing the marines of the Classis
Ravennas to drain lake Fucinus, and it was probably Vespasian who
formed the Legion II. Adjutrix from the Ravennate, even as Nero had
formed Legion I. Adjutrix from the Misenate marines.
The Ravenna that Augustus thus chose to be the great base and port of
his fleet in the eastern sea was, as we have seen, a place built upon piles
in the midst of the marshes, impregnable from the land, and, because
impregnable, able, whenever it was in dispute, to command the narrow
pass between the mountains and the sea that was the gate of Italy and
Cisalpine Gaul. Such a place, situated as it was upon the western shore
of that sea which was the fault between East and West, was eminently
suitable for the great purpose of the emperor. Pliny[1] indeed would
seem to tell us that from time immemorial Ravenna had possessed a

small port; but such a place, well enough for the small traders of those
days, could not serve usefully the requirements of a great fleet.
Therefore the first act of Augustus, when he had chosen Ravenna as his
naval base, was the construction of a proper port and harbour, and these
came to be named, after the fleet they served and accommodated,
Classis. Classis was situated some two and a half miles from the town
of Ravenna to the east-south-east. We may perhaps have some idea
both of its situation and of its relation to Ravenna if we say that it was
to that city what the Porto di Lido is to Venice.
[Footnote 1: Pliny, iii. 20; cf. also Strabo, v. 7.]
It is very difficult, in looking upon Ravenna as we see it to-day, to
reconstruct it, even in the imagination, as it