Trabzon
About
Trapezus became home port of the classis Pontica, Rome's Black Sea fleet, after Nero's general Corbulo used the city as a supply base for his Armenian campaign and left a garrison behind. When client Pontus was absorbed into the province of Galatia in 64 CE, its ships passed under direct Roman command and the fleet took the name it kept for the next two centuries. Vespasian's engineers built a new road linking the harbor inland to the legionary fortress at Satala, tying the naval base into Cappadocia's frontier network. From here the fleet patrolled the empire's entire southeastern Black Sea coast and guarded the grain convoys sailing down from Crimean ports. Hadrian's famous stone-built harbor still lay years in the future in 117 CE, when Trapezus was already a working naval station of long standing.
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.
Sources
Nearby
.jpg?width=800)
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →