Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

294 11. the army, c. 420,602
and subsequent overthrow of Avitus. 18 At some point a storm in the straits
of Messina overwhelmed some ships along with their crews, presumably a
naval squadron; if these were Romans it would help to explain their incapacity
at sea. 19
Majorian is praised for initiating a massive ship-building programme in
Italy, but in 460 he still chose to campaign against the Vandals by the land
route through Spain, partly perhaps as a means of asserting his authority
along the Mediterranean fringes of Gaul and Spain, but partly because of
the difficulty of confronting the Vandals on the open sea. A fleet of 300
ships was assembled for the crossing to Africa, but Geiseric managed to
capture or destroy enough to thwart the invasion; Majorian was soon
deposed, the third imperial victim of Vandal naval power. 20 When Sidonius
praised Anthemius in 468 he referred to the enormous Vandal navy that
annually threatened destruction, but hoped that the new emperor would at
last activate the unused fleets – to no avail; without substantial naval help
from the east, nothing could be achieved. 21 A Roman fleet survived at
Classis, the port of Ravenna, down to Ostrogothic times, and this could be
mobilized against fears of attack from the east, but the Vandals dominated
the western Mediterranean: in 533 Gelimer could despatch 120 ships to
recover Sardinia. 22 In the English Channel and down the Atlantic coast of
Gaul, Saxon pirates were the major threat, but the Visigoths maintained a
fleet in the Garonne to deter them; we hear of this under the command of
the Aquitanian Namatius. 23
The eastern Mediterranean was dominated by the Roman fleet, which
from its dockyards on the Golden Horn ensured the safety of
Constantinople and prevented problems in Europe spilling over into Asia,
and vice versa. In 515 the rebel Vitalian gathered 200 ships from Thracian
ports, but these were dispersed in the Bosphorus when the praetorian
prefect Marinus attacked them with some sort of chemical incendiary
agent. In 626 the professionalism of the Roman fleet saved Constantinople
during the Avar siege, since naval patrols prevented the Slav monoxyla from
transporting Shahvaraz’s Persian army to the European side and from
outflanking the capital’s mighty land walls by attacking down the Golden
Horn. 24 The Hellespont was similarly protected: in 400 Fravitta with a
squadron of light liburnae overturned the rafts on which Gainas was
attempting to ferry his men to Asia, and in a similar operation Germanus
18 Priscus fr. 31.1; Hydat. Chron. 177, 176; Sid. Ap. Carm. ii.367–70, v.388–440.
19 Priscus fr. 31.2.
20 Sid. Ap. Carm. v.441–8; Priscus fr. 36.1; John of Antioch fr. 203; Mar. Avent. s.a. 460.
21 Sid. Ap. Carm. ii.348–50, 384–6; Priscus fr. 39. 22 Procop. Wars iii.11.23.
23 Sid. Ap. Ep. viii.6.13–17.
24 Malalas 403.3–405.20; Evagr.HE iii.43 (515). Chron. Pasch. 722.14–725.1; Theodore Syncellus
307–8, 310–12; George of Pisidia, Bell. Avar. 441–74 (626).
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