Study On The Navy Of Roman Republic

Fighting for the sea was a way of communication in the ancient word. In the3rd century BC, Rome broke through the Italy Peninsula’s limitation and raise in the West of The Mediterran-ean. In less than200years, It swept through the Mediterranean region. The Rome Navy’s rise had profoundly changed the pattern of the Mediterranean worldThis paper is divided into four parts to discuss the navy of the Roman Republic.The first part discusses the background of the establish-ment of Rome Navy. The ruling class of Rome attached to the army development while neglecting the naval construction during the period of the unification of Italy, so Rome navy force was very weak in the early Republic. After the unification of Italy Peninsula, Rome also attempted to occupy the Sicily. However, this conflict with Carthaginian which had been the Maritime overlord in the Western Mediterranean. The Punic War broke out.The second part mainly introduces the battleships and equipments. Rome produced battleships in accordance with the Greek warships and Carthaginian warships. Its main equipment were "crow " bridge and ram. The bridge’s design and application fully reflected the wisdom and the spirit of Rome.The third part mainly introduces the Navy battles. Roman navy took nearly a century to defeat Carthage and spent half a century to defeat Macedonia. In addition Roman navy successfully destroyed the Mediterranean pirates. These wars not only made Rome become the maritime overlord but also promoted the economic prosperity.The fourth part mainly elaborates the reasons of the rapid development of Roman navy. The most important reason was that Rome needed to build a powerful navy to maintain its security. In addition, the political factors and diplomatic factors and technology factors and so on also contributed to the rapid rise of Rome navy.