The Classis Britannica Henry Cleere

Summary
The paper briefly reviews the evidence for the role and history of the
Classis Britannica. It was established in AD 40 or 43 and played a
close-support role for army operations in Britain and the Low Countries.
Its main function was, however, the supply and transportation of material
to army units in Britain; this included the operation of a major iron-
producing industry in the Weald. The fleet disappears from the archaeolog-
ical record towards the middle of the 3rd century, when the Dover base and
the iron-producing establishments were closed down.

Introduction fighting troops and the supply of stores and matériel. At

the conclusion of the campaing and the pacification of the
In any consideration of the Saxon Shore, it should be borne new provinces, the fleets were not disbanded, But con-
in mind that this defensive system represented an adapta- tinued to exercise these functions, which are essentially the
tion and extension of existing installations. It is for this 'support' role of modern military jargon.
reason that it has been thought worthwhile to devote some It cannot be gainsaid, however, that the sailors of the
attention to the naval force known to have been based in fleets retained a military function. It is known that the crew
the English Channel from the conquest of AD 43 to the 3rd of every vessel constituted a military centuria (irrespective
century. of size) and that there was a separate and parrallel command
Knowledge of the Classis Britannica is tantalizingly frag- structure for fighting purposes under the command of a
mentary. The first attempt at a survey was made by Atkin- centurion which co-existed alongside the structure required
son (1933), on whose work the major treatise on the Roman for the management of the ship, each crew member having
imperial navy (Starr 1960) draws heavily. There are short dual responsibilities. This is acknowledged in epigraphic
accounts in standard works on the Roman army (e.g. Stein material, where fleet personnel are more often described as
1933; Webster 1969) and a valuable essay by Cunliffe (1968) milites than as nautae. The military competence of naval
in his concluding Richborough report, much of which, personnel is perhaps best illustrated by the I and II Adiutrix
however, is concerned with a discussion of the Saxon Legions, which were raised from sailors of the Mediterra-
Shore system. The most recent study of Roman fleets and nean fleets by Vespasian following their prowess during
their organization (Kienast 1966) adds little to what is con- the civil wars of AD 69.
tained in the earlier works, apart from some prosopog- The distribution of known sites of the Classis Britannica,
raphical data based on recently discovered epigraphic mat- as represented by stamped tiles, emphasizes this non-
erial. The present paper does not claim to introduce new fighting role. Stamped tiles are known only from Bouloyne
evidence, with the exception of some information on the and a group of sites in the south-east of Britain; there are no
role of the fleet in the iron industry of the Weald of Kent proven fleet establishments in the military zones of the
and Sussex; it is intended as a background survey that may north and west, which would point to a support role for the
pose some additional questions about the origins and fleet. There were certainly harbour installations in associa-
organization of the Saxon Shore system. tion with the legionary fortresses and auxiliary forts of
Wales and the north (Fryer 1973), but there is no indication
The role of the Classis Britannica in the form of stamped tiles that these were operated by the
Fleet. An inscription from York referring to a gubernator or
Most early surveys of the Roman imperial fleets make an river pilot of the VI Legion (RIB. 1. 653) would seem to indi-
assumption that is not borne out by the evidence, namely cate that these ports were, to the contrary, the responsibil-
that these fleets can be equated directly with the fighting ity of the army units concerned. The designation by the
navies of modern times. As a result, certain earlier com- excavator of the Brough-on-Humber port (Wacher 1969) as
mentators have found difficulties in interpreting the infor- a base for a naval detachment' during the second half of
mation at their disposal. the 2nd century seems to be largely unsubstantiated, espe-
Following the defeat of Sextus Pompeius at Naulochus in cially since stamped tiles occur in profusion on Classis
36 BC and the great naval battle at Actium in 31 BC, the two Britannica sites in the south-east during this period.
praetorian fleets of Misenum and Ravenna, heirs of the The 'close support' plus fighting role of the Classis Britan-
battle fleet created by M. Vipsanius Agrippa in 37 B C, nica during military campaings is, of course, attested in the
assumed what was essentially a supply and transportation contemporary records, as will be discussed below, and it
role in the peaceful waters of the Mediterranean. During would seem likely that 1st century harbour installations at,
the expansionist years of the early Empire, a number of for example, Fishbourne, Fingringhoe, Hamworthy, Sea
provincial fleets were established—the Classes Africana Mills, and Topsham may have been operated directly by
(about AD 40), Pontica (AD 64), Moesica (20 BC – AD 10), Pan- the fleet during the conquest period (Cunliffe 1968, 255–6),
nonica (about 25 BC), and Germanica (about 12 BC)—disposed when fighting men could, perhaps, not be spared for such
around the long Imperial frontiers. These fleets were all work from the legions and auxiliary units. However, since
founded to support a military campaing (with the exception the practice of stamping tiles appears not to have been
of the Classis Pontica, which was the former Royal Pontic introduced until the 2nd century this must remain specula-
Fleet, embodied into the Roman forces); for example, the tive.
Classis Germanica was raised by Drusus for his German further support for the view that the role of the fleet was
campaing, apparently from Mediterranean sailors (cf. CIL. essentially one of supply and transportation may perhaps
XIII. 8322, 8843). It is clear from contemporary historians be gained from a study of the careers of the very few pre-
that they had two major functions: the transportation of fects of the Classis Britannica that are known. Inscriptions

Link to Previous Section

 Cleere: The Classis Britannica 17

Fig 4 Sites producing CL BR stamped tiles (from Brodribb 1969)

show that a fleet prefecture often formed part of a cursus Foundation). Cunliffe (1968, 258) does suggest, however,
honorum that embodied one or more procuratorships (Kien- that the main base of the fleet during the later 1st century
ast 1966, 35 ff.), and this is well illustrated for the British may lie outside the existing Saxon Shore Fort.
fleet by M. Maenius Agrippa L. Tusidius, who under Excavations at Dover have revealed a major Classis Britan-
Antoninus Pius combined the offices of praefectus classis nica base, discussed elsewhere in this volume (pp 20-1). It
britannicae and procurator provinciae britanniae (CIL. XI. 5632; appears from the provisional interpretation to date from the
Pflaum 1960-61, No. 120). This would appear to support early 2nd century to the early 3rd century, and so it may
the attribution of a basically non-fighting role to the fleets have succeeded (or have been built to supplement) the
and their commanders. hypothetical base at Richborough.
That the command of the British fleet was an important The evidence from Folkestone comes from a villa located
one is demonstrated by the fact that only this and that of on a magnificent site overlooking the Channel, excavated in
the Classis Germanica qualified as centenary commands, all the 1920s (Winbolt 1925, 103 ff.). Complete tiles with the CL
the other provincial fleets being ranked as sexagenary BR stamp were found in situ in part of the villa dated to the
commands (von Domaszewski 1908, 153, 160 ff.). This is mid-2nd century. It has often been suggested that this villa
perhaps best understood by reference to the long coastline was in fact the residence of the prefect of the Classis Britan-
of Britain, which would require a considerable force of men nica, and the location and luxury of the complex make this
and vessels. The German fleet probably qualified for equal an attractive hypothesis.
ranking by virtue of the long and troubled frontier formed Lympne was excavated by Roach Smith (1850, 257-8) and
by the Rhine. produced, in addition to the Aufidius Pantera inscription
referred to below, a number of stamped tiles built into the
walls of the later Saxon Shore fort. It is possible therefore
The Evidence that there was a fleet establishment there before the Saxon
Evidence for the extent and role of the Classis Britannica Shore fort was built. Pevensey has been examined only once
comes from three main sources: stamped tiles, inscriptions, in the present century (Salzman 1908). Unfortunately, there
and literary references. is no indication in an otherwise admirable excavation report
Stamped tiles The distribution of finds of stamped tiles (having regard to its early date) of the exact provenance of
of the Classis Britannica is shown in Fig. 4, taken from a the tiles found. However, here again it is not unreasonable
recent survey (Brodribb 1969). The sites may be divided into to postulate a fleet base antedating the surviving Saxon
coastal and inland locations. Of the former, only Shore fort.
Richborough (Cunliffe 1968) and Dover (Philp 1971 a, b) Tiles from the inland sites (Bardown, Beauport Park,
may be said to have been excavated or interpreted recently, Bodiam, and Cranbrook) are all associated either directly or
and of the latter only Bardown (Cleere 1970) and Beauport indirectly with the iron industry. Their significance is dis-
Park (A G Brodribb and H F Cleere, unpublished work). cussed in a recent paper by the present author (Cleere
Dealing first with the Boulogne finds, these are undated and 1975). Briefly, it is believed that the Classis Britannica took
can serve only to confirm the fleet’s association with the over a small-scale pre-Roman industry in the area of Hast-
port of Gesoriacum/Bononia. Only one tile was found at ings and Battle, and expanded it, shipping finished iron
Richborough, apparently in association with the postulated from one or more ports on the estuaries of small rivers
supply base of AD 44-85 (i.e. before the erection of the Great opening into the area now covered by Romney and Wal-
 18 Cleere: The Classis Britannica

Fig 5 Distribution of Roman ironmaking sites in the Weald (from Cleere 1975). Sites mentioned in the text are Bardown (1)
Beauport Park (2), and Cranbrook (18)

land Marshes to fleet bases at Richborough, Dover, British fleets—successively, according to Starr (1960, 161,
Lympne, and/or Pevensey. In the first part of the 2nd cen- fn. 58) or jointly, for the purpose of the campaign in Britain
tury the industry expanded inland to the High Weald, but of Septimus Severus (Kienast 1966, 44). Another member of
came to an abrupt end around 235-245, when Bardown and this order, Bla . . . (CIL.XIV.5341), followed procuratorships
Beauport Park at least were clearly abandoned. Of the four in Armenia and Cappadocia with the command of the Clas-
sites listed above, Bardown and Beauport Park were iron- sis Britannica, and then graduated to command the
producing centres, Bodiam was an estuarine port on the praetorian fleet based at Ravenna. A more modest career
river Rother, and Cranbrook appears to have been an was that of S. Flavius Quietus, who was promoted from the
administrative centre of some kind. The distribution of rank of primus pilus of the XX Legion to prefect of the Classis
Roman ironmaking sites in the Weald is shown in Fig. 5 Britannica in the reign of either Antoninus Pius or Caracalla
(from Cleere 1975). There is a strong case for describing the (Pflaum 1960-1. No. 156bis).
Weald as an Imperial mining estate, examples of which are Literary sources There is no literary reference in the
known from elsewhere in the Empire. classical historians to the Classis Britannica by that name.
Inscriptions The best known inscription is probably However, Dio (lx.19.4ff.) stresses the role of the fleet used,
the barnacle-encrusted altar built into the east gate of the in three squadrons, for the invasion of AD 43. A fleet from
fort at Lympne, dedicated by Aufidius Pantera, prefect of Britain ferried the XIV Legion to the Low Countries at the
the Classis Britannica and dated to c. AD 140 (CIL. VII. 18 = time of Civilis’s revolt and was virtually destroyed in a
RIB.1.66). There are also two inscriptions on Hadrian’s surprise attack by the Canninefates (Tacitus, Hist., 4, 79).
Wall, from Netherby and Birdoswald, recording the work Fleet operations in a war situation are perhaps best illus-
of detachments from the fleet (CIL. VII. 864, 970 = trated by the campaign of Agricola. He conceived of it as an
RIB.1.1944, 1945). A building slab found in the portico of the integral part of his invasion of north Britain, both as a sup-
granaries in Benwell fort (RIB.I.1340) records construction ply arm and in an aggressive role. Tacitus tells us that it was
work by a vexillation of the fleet. These are the only inscrip- used as a raiding force: igitur praemissa classe, quae pluribus
tions from Britain specifically naming the Classis Britannica, locis praedata magnum et incertum terrorem faceret, (Agric., 18,
but the Lydney Park dedication by Flavius Senilis, who 24). The fleet also carried out a major feat of navigation for a
describes himself as praepositus reliquationis classis, should Roman fleet, notorious for a fear of Ocean, in rounding the
not be overlooked (although the interpretation of this north of Scotland, subjugating the Orkneys en route, and
mosaic inscription is still a matter of dispute). sailing a little way down the west coast before returning to
Outside the province, there are a number of interesting its operational base on the Forth of Tay (Agric., 10. 12. 38).
inscriptions from Boulogne (CIL.XIII. 3540-3547). Among Beyond these somewhat sporadic references, little is to
the officers whose names are recorded is that of T. Claudius be learned of the work of the fleet during the subsequent
Aug. L. Seleucus (CIL .XIII. 3542), a freedman of the two centuries, which in itself would appear to support the
Emperor Claudius from the eastern Mediterranean. Also of view that it had reverted to its permanent support role.
importance is the inscription from Arles (CIL.XII. 686) relat-
ing to Satuminus, an officer of the fleet during the reign of
Philip in the mid-3rd century; this is the latest reference to Historical summary
the Classis Britannica by that name, by which time it was From the information presented in the preceding sections,
following the custom of the day and naming itself after the it is possible to construct an outline history of the Classis
reigning Emperor by the addition of Philippiana. Britannica during the first two centuries of Roman rule in
The fleet is referred to as part of the cursus honorum on a Britain.
number of inscriptions from other parts of the Empire. An The fleet’s foundation is usually attributed to Claudius,
unknown knight of the 2nd century (CIL .VI.1634), fol- as part of his provisions for the invasion of AD 43. However,
lowing appointment as sub-prefect of one of the praetorian there is a case to be made out for the initial establishment
fleets, commanded the Pannonian, Moesian, German, and being due to Gaius, at the time of his abortive invasion
 Cleere: The Classis Britannica 19
preparations in AD 40. These extended to the construction personnel to army units on the frontiers. This would go
of the harbour installations at Gesoriacum, and it is likely some way to explain the move from the relatively long-
that the fleet assembled there at that time would not have established base at Dover. That there was a well organized
been totally disbanded. naval force is amply borne out by the adventures of
Its activities in the first century were at first in a close Carausius later in the 3rd century.
support role-for the invasion, the suppression of the The other areas for possible future study concern the
Boudiccan revolt, and the campaigns in Wales and Scot- Organization of the fleet during the 2nd and early 3rd cen-
land. It was also engaged in military operations across the turies. The role of Gesoriacum vis-á-vis Dover needs eluci-
Channel on at least one occasion. However, during this dation, and also the relationship of the Classis Britannica to
period it also appears to have been engaged in build&g up the army on the Rhine frontier. On this side of the Channel,
a supply and ordnance base in the south-east, which the relationship of the fleet in organizational and logistic
included the exploitation of the iron-ore deposits of the terms to the army units in the west and north is by no
Weald. Up to AD 85 the base was probably at Richborough, means clear, and it is to be hoped that greater attention will
and was then transferred or extended to Dover (and be paid to the implications of harbour installations adjacent
perhaps also to Lympne and Pevensey). The function of the to legionary fortresses and auxiliary forts in the future.
cross-Channel establishment at Gesoriacum is not easy to In conclusion it may be stated that a greater knowledge of
understand. The close link with the army (and also possibly the Organization and distribution of the Classis Britannica is
with the procurator’s department) in Britain would seem to potentially of great interest for Saxon Shore studies. The
militate against the unit’s headquarters remaining there, as extent of the 2nd century establishments and the 3rd cen-
is usually assumed. However, tombstones of at east three tury reorganization could throw a great deal of light on the
trierarchs found there imply a fleet establishment of some structure and growth of the Saxon Shore defensive system.
importance. It is possible t h at Gesoriacum was the conti-
nental base, loading goods and supplies for shipping to
Britain, and perhaps distributing materials originating from
that province; the production of iron in the Wealden instal-
lations was so large as to imply a considerable export out-
side Britain (Cleere 1976).
During the 2nd century the fleet would appear to have
carried out primarily a support role, supplying and servic-
ing the army units in the military zones of the north and
west and occasionally helping in other ways, as on the
Wall, although it was doubtless called upon for close-
support activities from time to time. The Severan campaign
obviously required a return to close support on a massive
scale, since the operations were such as to require no fewer
than four fleets to be brought under a single command. It
seems likely that the rebuilding of the bath-house at
Beauport Park dates from this period.
The Classis Britannica as a unit disappears from the record
some time towards the middle of the 3rd century. The
Dover base was abandoned and slighted so comprehen-
sively that the later Saxon Shore fort was built on a differ-
ent alignment, and the iron-making establishments at Bar-
down and Beauport Park came to an abrupt end. This was
apparently not the result of any kind of incursion, since the
Beauport Park bath-house was systematically stripped of
re-usable materials such as lead piping and window glass
and allowed to collapse. The latest coins found were of
Caracalla and Severus Alexander at Bardown and Beauport
Park respectively, not incompatible with the date for the
Aries inscription. It is interesting to observe that the Classis
Germanica appears to have disappeared from the record at
about the same time, at least under that name.
Further studies
This incomplete survey of the history and role of the Classis
Britannica raises several interesting lines of research. The
most obvious relates to the mid-3rd century and its disap-
pearance from the archaeological record. It would appear
that the British Fleet as such ceased to exist: the large num-
bers of stamped tiles from the later phases at Beauport Park
and Dover make it seem unlikely that this practice would
have been abandoned when the formation was relocated,
although the fact that the abandonment of the practice of
stamping tiles may have coincided with this move means
that the end of tile stamping must not be interpreted as firm
evidence of disbandment of the fleet. The abondonment of
Dover and the two ironmaking establishments is less easy
to explain in this way. Nevertheless, the army would con-
tinue to require naval forces for supply and close-support
purposes, and so it seems reasonable to postulate a radical
reorganization, which may well have affected fleets on both
sides of the Channel, perhaps involving the disbandment
of the fleets as such and the reallocation of their vessels and

Link to Next Section