Roman marines! Help wanted notice -

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

This is a excerpt from a Yahoo new article, By BJOERN H. AMLAND, Associated Press Bjoern H. Amland, Associated Press (heavily edited):

-In a newspaper op-ed, the (owner of a shipping company) said history shows that fighting piracy requires a gloves-off approach.

"Pirates captured in international waters have always been punished by death, often on the spot," he wrote, arguing that modern navies should deal with the problem like Roman pirate hunter Pompey did more than 2,000 years ago."-

So I interprete this as a need for Roman Marine reenactors. First, we should all need a Quinquereme, and a few fast liburnae. Roman Marines should be equiped with a bronze helmet (to resist rust),the Montefortino, to be correct for the era, a mail hamata, for the flexabiliy, and the oval shield , so as not to catch on thing protruding form the decks. The use of the corvus is up for debate. I doubt there would be any casualties, the shock of the Roman Navy coming down on any pirate would be enough to stop them from anything but astonishment.


I think reenactor marines should recieve the same pay and benifits as was given by Pompey, plus shares of loot. I think a sign-on bonus will help also. Up until the time of Vespasian, Marines recieved "shoe money", so this would be an addition. I will not go into the color of the tunic as this would just cause a debate. I think it would be left up to a vote of the reenactment crew.

Other member thoughts on this are appreciated.

Ralph

[M.VAL.BRUTUS]

Sign me up!

Might be fun trying to knock out those smaller ships with Roman Artillary...

How would the Corvus work though? I think it would likely sink the tiny ships the pirates use...

[ScipioAsina]

Serving as a marine was not particularly glamorous. In fact, there does not seem to have been any distinction between marines and rowers. From my notes:

“For having compelled some marines [classiarios] whom Nero had made regular soldiers to return to their former position as rowers [remigibus], upon their refusing and obstinately demanding an eagle and standards, he not only dispersed them by a cavalry charge, but even decimated them.” (Suetonius, Galb. 12.2)

Rougé, Jean. Ships and Fleets of the Ancient Mediterranean. Translated by Susan Frazer. Middleton: Wesleyan University Press, 1975.

“The rowing crew… was made up of those who were called the classiarii, the fleet’s soldiers. When the fleet was not in action out on the sea, these soldiers were billeted in the bases and the stationes, and some of them took care of the maintenance of the ships in the dockyards under the supervision of specialized hands. In the military hierarchy of the Empire, these naval soldiers were lowest in rank, even lower than the soldiers in the non-Roman corps. A longer period of service was required of them than of others—twenty-six years as opposed to twenty-five years for service in the non-Roman corps—and their pay was proportionally lower. Furthermore, fleet service was much harsher than service in the land army; interpretation of information taken from the funerary inscriptions of fleets show that few classiarii reached the age of the honesta missio, the age when they could be honorably discharged. The seamen were beneath the rest of the army in terms of their social situation as well; they were aliens, that is, peoples under the sway of Rome, some of whom had been set free, and even sometimes, but very rarely, slaves. It is likely they received Latin citizenship when they were conscripted, but it was not until they were discharged from service that they were granted Roman citizenship, which is also when each discharged seaman was given an excerpt of the discharge law, cast in a bronze diptych, called a military diploma.” (128-129)

In addition, and especially during the First Punic War, the permanent detachment of marines aboard each vessel was, accordingly to Polybius, frequently augmented by infantry drawn from the legions. As Thiel notes in A History of Roman Sea-power Before the Second Punic War:

"These permanent garrisons could not be drawn from the legions; for, though the legionaries did not object to fighting naval battles, which lasted no more than a single day, they would have strongly objected to serving for long periods in the navy, because in Roman eyes naval service was inferior to legionary service on land."

In any case, I think this is fair evidence that the marines were almost indistinguishable from the infantry of the army in terms of armament and training (marines/sailors organized into legions, infantry from the legions serving aboard ships).

As to the color of their tunics, Plautus mentions that the ferrugineus was the color of the seaman. I posted a thread on this some time ago.

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

Jeff, your post and link was very informative. Yes I agree a blue-grey tunic is called for. But yes, the status of the Marines is kinda dismal. But as we are propoposing a reenctment of marines we don't have to go overboard 8-) On the issue. We just want to rid the seas of a scourge and make some vino money. An...educational... endevor.

Brandon, Your idea is good on use of artillery. There are enough reconstructions out there to do that.

As to the rowers, I had a though. There are some ...er...ah.... lifestyle bars that they can be recruited from, provided they get a promise they will be flogged on a regular basis.

Ralph

[john roberts]

As Pompey and every other pirate hunter has always known, the way to get the pirates is not to engage them on the water, it's to hit their ports. That's where most of the loot and the prisoners being held for ransom are to be found. So I suggest black-painted ships for low visibility, padded oarlocks for quiet, and extra-wide corvi for quick debarcation. About 3:00 AM, when the pirates are all passed out drunk or hung over, come storming ashore, whip out the gladii and go to town! Leave a few alive to load the loot onto the ships, then cut their hands off so they can pass the good news along the coast. As for the prisoners, I think we should offer their repatriation for no more than 50% of the ransom that was being demanded. Doing good while having fun, what could be better?

[Gaius Colletti]

Scipio you have some very interesting quotes! Its very curious that marines were not held with high regard, as protecting the "Mare Nostrum" which was the link connecting all the Republic/Empire, was so essential!