The Byzantine navy or the Eastern Roman navy was the naval force of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire. Like the empire it served, it was a direct continuation from its imperial Roman predecessor, but played a far greater role in the defense and survival of the state than its earlier iteration. While the fleets of the unified Roman Empire faced few great naval threats, operating as a policing force vastly inferior in power and prestige to the legions, the sea became vital to the very existence of the empire in the east, which several historians have called a "maritime empire".
| Attributes | Values |
|---|
| rdf:type
| |
| rdfs:label
| |
| rdfs:comment
| - The Byzantine navy or the Eastern Roman navy was the naval force of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire. Like the empire it served, it was a direct continuation from its imperial Roman predecessor, but played a far greater role in the defense and survival of the state than its earlier iteration. While the fleets of the unified Roman Empire faced few great naval threats, operating as a policing force vastly inferior in power and prestige to the legions, the sea became vital to the very existence of the empire in the east, which several historians have called a "maritime empire".
|
| sameAs
| |
| Strength
| - ca. 300 warships in 9th–10th centuries.
- ca. 42,000 men in 899.
|
| dcterms:subject
| |
| dbkwik:military/pr...iPageUsesTemplate
| |
| Previous
| |
| Partof
| |
| Active
| |
| Name
| |
| Align
| |
| Caption
| - The imperial ensign carried by Byzantine warships in the 14th century, as described by Pseudo-Kodinos and illustrated in the Castilian atlas Conosçimiento de todos los reynos
|
| Width
| |
| Allies
| - Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Crusader states, Aydinids
|
| opponents
| - Vandals, Ostrogoths, the Caliphate and Saracen pirates, Slavs, Bulgarians, Rus', Normans, Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Crusader states, Seljuks, Anatolian beyliks, Ottomans
|
| Headquarters
| |
| BGCOLOR
| |
| Area
| - Mediterranean Sea, Danube, Black Sea
|
| War
| - the Justinianic Wars, the Byzantine–Arab Wars, the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars, the Rus'–Byzantine Wars, the Byzantine–Norman wars, the Crusades and the Byzantine–Ottoman wars
|
| Source
| - From the Alexiad of Anna Komnene, XI.10
- Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddimah, III.32
- Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, Annus Mundi 6165.
- Admonitions to the Emperor, from the Strategikon of Kekaumenos, Ch. 87
|
| Leaders
| - Byzantine Emperor
- droungarios tou plōïmou and thematic stratēgoi ,
- megas doux
|
| Quote
| - "During that time [...] the Muslims gained control over the whole Mediterranean. Their power and domination over it was vast. The Christian nations could do nothing against the Muslim fleets, anywhere in the Mediterranean. All the time, the Muslims rode its wave for conquest."
- "At that time Kallinikos, an artificer from Heliopolis, fled to the Romans. He had devised a sea fire which ignited the Arab ships and burned them with all hands. Thus it was that the Romans returned with victory and discovered the sea fire."
- "As he [the Emperor] knew that the Pisans were skilled in sea warfare and dreaded a battle with them, on the prow of each ship he had a head fixed of a lion or other land-animal, made in brass or iron with the mouth open and then gilded over, so that their mere aspect was terrifying. And the fire which was to be directed against the enemy through tubes he made to pass through the mouths of the beasts, so that it seemed as if the lions and the other similar monsters were vomiting the fire."
- "Strive at all time to have the fleet in top condition and to have it not want for anything. For the fleet is the glory of Rhōmania. [...] The droungarios and prōtonotarios of the fleet should [...] investigate with rigor the slightest thing which is done to the fleet. For when the fleet is reduced to nothingness, you shall be overthrown and fall."
|
| abstract
| - The Byzantine navy or the Eastern Roman navy was the naval force of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire. Like the empire it served, it was a direct continuation from its imperial Roman predecessor, but played a far greater role in the defense and survival of the state than its earlier iteration. While the fleets of the unified Roman Empire faced few great naval threats, operating as a policing force vastly inferior in power and prestige to the legions, the sea became vital to the very existence of the empire in the east, which several historians have called a "maritime empire". The first threat to Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean was posed by the Vandals in the 5th century, but their threat was ended by the wars of Justinian I in the 6th century. The re-establishment of a permanently maintained fleet and the introduction of the dromon galley in the same period also marks the point when the Byzantine navy began departing from its late Roman roots and developing its own characteristic identity. This process would be furthered with the onset of the Muslim conquests in the 7th century. Following the loss of the Levant and later Africa, the Mediterranean Sea was transformed from a "Roman lake" into a battleground between Byzantines and Arabs. In this struggle, the Byzantine fleets were critical, not only for the defense of the Empire's far-flung possessions around the Mediterranean basin, but also in the repulsion of seaborne attacks against the imperial capital of Constantinople itself. Through the use of the newly invented "Greek fire", the Byzantine navy's best-known and feared secret weapon, Constantinople was saved from several sieges and numerous naval engagements were won for the Byzantines. Initially, the defense of the Byzantine coasts and the approaches to Constantinople was borne by the great fleet of the Karabisianoi. Progressively however it was split up into several regional (thematic) fleets, while a central Imperial Fleet was maintained at Constantinople, guarding the city and forming the core of naval expeditions. By the late 8th century, the Byzantine navy, a well-organized and maintained force, was again the dominant maritime power in the Mediterranean. The antagonism with the Muslim navies continued with alternating success, but in the 10th century, the Byzantines were able to recover a position of supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean. During the 11th century, the navy, like the Empire itself, began to decline. Faced with new naval challenges from the West, the Byzantines were increasingly forced to rely on the navies of Italian city-states like Venice and Genoa, with disastrous effects on Byzantium's economy and sovereignty. A period of recovery under the Komnenians was followed by another period of decline, which culminated in the disastrous dissolution of the Empire by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. After the Empire was restored in 1261, several emperors of the Palaiologan dynasty tried to revive the navy, but their efforts had only a temporary effect. By the mid-14th century, the Byzantine fleet, which once could put hundreds of warships to sea, was limited to a few dozen at best, and control of the Aegean passed definitively to the Italian and Ottoman navies. The diminished navy, however, continued to be active until the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)