The draining of the lake allowed to allocate extensive swamp and swamps for cultivation. For years, workers brought by Claudius dug a canal leading from Lake of Fucino, a few miles east of Rome, to the nearby river Liris. Claudius decided to celebrate naumachia’s greatest engineering work that was accomplished during his reign. Sea battles were so successful that, despite the enormous costs, the rulers decided that it would be worth organizing them from time to time. It is associated with the gladiator call: Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant! The most famous and described in detail by Tacitus, Suetonius and Dion naumachia took place in the waters of Lake Fucin in 52 CE on the order of Emperor Claudius. When the lake was not used for performances, it served as a water reservoir. In this case, August ordered the construction of a new lake on the banks of the Tiber near Trastevere, measuring approximately 548 meters by 365. However, because the waters of the artificial Lake Caesar in the Field of Mars after a few years stagnated, they were buried. He organized it on the occasion of the dedication of the temple of Mars Avenger. The idea of Caesar was continued by his adopted son, Augustus Augustus, who organized another naumachia in the 2nd year CE. The battle itself was not described in detail, but it is believed that the fight was not a bloody slaughterhouse, but simply a show. The Liburnian galleys could also contain 40 armed soldiers who gathered on the piers at the bow or stern of the ship, ready to break into the enemy’s deck. Like the Tyrian unit, the ship had a sharp ram, which was to sink the enemy ship. The ship was about 33 meters long and 4.5 meters wide. The galley was slightly submerged in water and had a fairly wide deck. This unit had two rows of oars placed one above the other, which allowed 60 oars to be placed on one side. However, Caesar, not paying much attention to historical details, decided to use the Liburnian galleys, which were the basic ships of the Roman fleet operating in territorial waters during the battle. Its shape was long and narrow, sharpened at both ends. Liburna ( Liburnae) was a kind of light Roman warship, with two rows of oars and low displacement. Our information about the Egyptian fleet of this period is very rudimentary, but probably the Egyptians could only boarding. There were also armed soldiers on board who could board the enemy ship. In addition, their unit was equipped with a sharp ram on the bow just below the water surface, thanks to which it was possible to ram and sink the enemy unit. The Tyrians then had ships with high sides, powered by two rows of oars. The battle fought several centuries earlier between Tire and Egypt was to be modelled. The lake was wide, but not very deep because the warships of that time had very little displacement. To create the right conditions for this, an army of workers was to dig an artificial lake in the Martian Field. 3000 people and over a dozen ships were to take part in the spectacle. So he announced that in addition to gladiator fights, plays, free feasts and other entertainment, there would be a naval battle. Caesar organized the games in order to win the support of the crowd and strengthen his power. During this time Caesar managed to seize dictatorial power at the expense of hundreds of executions in which unwilling noblemen were executed. The first naumachia was organized by Julius Caesar during the Great Games of the year 46 BCE. Rome’s contacts with Africa and Far EastĪn engraving showing the staging of a naval battle in an amphitheater.
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