Seleucia Pieria

Portus Seleuciae Pieriae

Naval BaseSyria · Cevlik, near Samandag, TurkeyBuilt 70 CE

About

Seleucia Pieria served as the seaport of Antioch and home of the classis Syriaca, the Roman navy's main eastern fleet. Vespasian rebuilt the harbor around 70 CE with an inner and outer basin fed by a canal cut partly through solid rock, a feat of engineering still visible today as the Titus Tunnel, designed to flush silt from the port entrance.

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.