# Classis Misenensis

Part of a series on the :
Military of ancient Rome 753 BC – AD 476 :
Structural history
Army
Unit types and ranks
Decorations and punishments
Legions
Auxilia
Generals
Navy
Fleets
Admirals :
Campaign history
Wars and battles :
Technological history
Military engineering
Castra
Siege engines
Triumphal arches
Roads :
Political history :
Strategy and tactics
Infantry tactics :
Frontiers and fortifications
Limes
Walls
Limes Britannicus
Antonine Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Saxon Shore
Limes Germanicus
Alb Limes
Lauter Valley Limes
Lower Germanic Limes
Main Limes
Neckar-Odenwald Limes
Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes
Wetterau Limes
Danube–Iller–Rhine Limes
Norican Limes
Claustra Alpium Iuliarum
Pannonian Limes
Limes Alutanus
Limes Moesiae
Trajan's Wall
Anastasian Wall
Limes Sarmatiae
Limes Arabicus
Limes Tripolitanus
Limes Mauretaniae :
Ancient Rome portal :
vte :
The Classis Misenensis ("Fleet of Misenum"), later awarded the honorifics praetoria and Pia Vindex, was the senior fleet of the imperial Roman navy.

## History

The Classis Misenensis was founded by Augustus in 27 BC, when the fleet of Italy, until then based mostly at Ostia, was moved to the new harbour of Portus Julius at Misenum in the Bay of Naples. It was commanded by a praefectus classis, drawn from the highest levels of the equestrian class, those earning more than 200,000 sesterces a year. Its mission was to control the western part of the Mediterranean Sea and, as the honorific praetoria awarded by Vespasian for its support during the civil war of 69 suggests, the classis Misenensis, together with the Classis Ravennatis, formed the naval counterpart of the Praetorian Guard, a permanent naval force at the emperor's direct disposal.
The Classis Misenensis recruited its crews mostly from the East, especially from Egypt. Since Rome did not face any naval threat in the Mediterranean, the bulk of the fleet's crews were idle. Some of the sailors were based in Rome itself, initially housed in the barracks of the Praetorian Guard, but later given their own barracks, the Castra Misenatium near the Colosseum. There they were used to stage mock naval battles (naumachiae), and operated the mechanism that deployed the canvas canopy of the Colosseum. Among the sailors of this fleet, Nero levied the legio I Classis and used some of its leading officers in the murder of his mother Agrippina the Younger.
In 192, the Misenum fleet supported Didius Julianus, and then participated in the campaign of Septimius Severus against Pescennius Niger, transporting his legions to the East. The fleet remained active in the East for the next few decades, where the emergence of the Persian Sassanid Empire posed a new threat. In 258–260, the Classis Misenensis was employed in the suppression of a rebellion in North Africa.
In 324 the fleet's ships participated in the campaign of Constantine the Great against Licinius and his decisive naval victory in the Battle of the Hellespont. Afterwards, the bulk of the ships were moved to Constantinople, Constantine's new capital.

## Praefecti classis Misenensis

The following list is based on Werner Eck and Hans Lieb, "Ein Diplom für die Classis Ravennas vom 22. November 206", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 96 (1993), pp. 86–88
| Name | Time frame | Source |
| Tiberius Julius Optatus Pontianus | 52 | CIL XVI, 1 = ILS 1986; CIL X, 6318 = ILS 2815 |
| Anicetus | ?-59 | Tacitus, Annales, XIV, 3 |
| Claudius Julianus | 69 | Tacitus, Historiae 3.57 |
| Sextus Lucilius Bassus | 69 - 71 | CIL XVI, 12; CIL XVI, 13; CIL XVI, 15; CIL XVI, 16; AE 1997, 1273 = RMD-IV 204 Tacitus, Historiae 2.100, 3.12 |
| Claudius Apollinaris | 69 | Tacitus, Historiae 3.76f |
| Gaius Plinius Secundus | 79 | Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, 6.16.4 |
| Quintus Marcius Turbo | 114 | CIL XVI, 60; AE 1955, 255 |
| Julius Fronto | 118-129 | CIL XVI, 66; AE 2002, 1734 = RMD-V 353; AE 2008, 1756; AE 2014, 1618; AE 2014, 1619; CIL XVI, 74; AE 2005, 691 |
| Marcus Gavius Maximus | ca. 132/3 | |
| Marcus Calpurnius Seneca Fabius Turpio Sentinatianus | 133-134 | CIL XVI, 79; CIL II, 1178 = ILS 2736; AE 2005, 1717 |
| Caecius Severus | 139-140 | CIL XVI, 177; AE 1977, 793 = RMD-I 38 |
| Valerius Paetus | 145 | CIL XVI, 92; AE 2008, 1111 |
| Titus Furius Victorinus | ca. 154 | CIL VI, 41143 = ILS 9002 |
| Tuticanius Capito | 158-160 | AE 1985, 994 = RMD-III 171; AE 1995, 1822 = RMD-IV 277; AE 1997, 1769 = RMD-V 425; AE 2006, 1855; AE 2006, 1856; AE 2006, 1858 |
| Julius Crescens | 166 | CIL XVI, 122; AE 1992, 1507 = RMD-III 172 |
| Publius Cominius Clemens | ca. 178 | CIL V, 8659 = ILS 1412; AE 1890, 151; RSH-85 |
| Lucius Julius Vehilius Gratus Julianus | ca. 183/4 | CIL VI, 31856 = ILS 1327 |
| Gnaeus Marcius Rustius Rufinus | between 190 and 208 | CIL IX, 1582 = ILS 1343; CIL X, 1127 |
| Claudius Diognetus | 209 | AE 1976, 794 = RMD-I 73 |
| Valerius Datus | 212 | RMD-I 74 |
| Claudius Dionysius | 214 | AE 1979, 626 = RMD II 131 |
| Marcius Agrippa | 217 | Historia Augusta, "Vita Caracalla" 6,7 |
| Aelius Secundus | 218 | AE 1991, 1359 = RMD-III 353 |
| Appius Celer | 219-221 | AE 1991, 1359 = RMD-III 192; AE 1995, 1565 = RMD-IV 307 |
| Titus Licinius Hierocletes | 229 | AE 1985, 821 = RMD II 133 |
| Valerius Valens | ca. 238/40 | CIL X, 3336 = ILS 3756 |
| Gaius Julius Alexander | 246 | AE 1910, 36 = ILS 9221 |
| Aelius Aemilianus | 247 | CIL XVI, 152 |
| Marcus Cornelius Octavianus | ca. 260 | CIL VIII, 12296 = ILS 2774; AE 1907, 4 = ILS 9006; AE 1954, 136 |

## List of known ships

The following ship names and types of the classis Misenensis have survived: Archived 2007-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
* 1 hexeres: Ops
* 1 quinquereme: Victoria
* 9 quadriremes: Fides, Vesta, Venus, Minerva, Dacicus, Fortuna, Annona, Libertas, Olivus
* 50 triremes: Concordia, Spes, Mercurius, Iuno, Neptunus, Asclepius, Hercules, Lucifer, Diana, Apollo, Venus, Perseus, Salus, Athenonix, Satyra, Rhenus, Libertas, Tigris, Oceanus, Cupidus, Victoria, Taurus, Augustus, Minerva, Parthicus, Euphrates, Vesta, Aesculapius, Pietas, Fides, Danubius, Ceres, Tibur, Pollux, Mars, Salvia, Triumphus, Aquila, Liber Pater, Nilus, Caper, Sol, Isis, Providentia, Fortuna, Iuppiter, Virtus, Castor
* 11 liburnians: Aquila, Agathopus, Fides, Aesculapius, Iustitia, Virtus, Taurus Ruber, Nereis, Clementia, Armata, Minerva
By 79 this fleet had probably nothing larger than a quadrireme in service, for Pliny the Elder, commander of the fleet, investigated the eruption of Vesuvius in a quadrireme, presumably his flagship and the largest class of vessel in the fleet.