Alexandria

Classis Alexandrina

Naval BaseAegyptus · Alexandria, EgyptBuilt 30 BCE

About

Founded in 30 BCE after Actium to guard Rome's most vital grain route, the classis Alexandrina escorted the Alexandrian corn fleet across the Mediterranean and patrolled the Nile. Its Liburnian biremes moored in the Great Harbor below the royal quarter on the Lochias peninsula, close by the Pharos lighthouse that already marked the port for the ancient world. Command fell to a procurator paid 60,000 sesterces a year, one rung above ordinary fleet prefects, reflecting Alexandria's importance to the grain supply. Unusually for a Roman fleet, its rowers had to hold Alexandrian or full Roman citizenship rather than being drawn from the wider Egyptian population, a filter meant to keep the corn route in trusted hands. It still sailed unbroken in 117 CE.

What happened here

The fleet is quartered here and the base is built around getting ships out of the water. Slipways and covered sheds keep hulls dry through the winter, because a warship left afloat waterlogs and slows. Crews are provincials serving long terms, not citizens, and they train at the oar constantly in the harbour. Workshops turn out rope, pitch, sailcloth and oars in quantity; timber is stockpiled seasoned. The main fleets patrol against piracy, carry dispatches and move troops, and in practice they spend far more time on transport than on battle. Detachments are posted away for years at a stretch. A large base needs a lighthouse, a mole and a town, and it gets all three.