The Prow and ram of a Roman Man o' War
(Below) A Roman Admiral/Consul is welcomed on board a Roman Man o' War. This scene from the film Ben Hur, starring Charlton Heston and the great late British Actor Jack Hawkins, is probably pretty accurate for officer's dress at least. Of course the naval battle in the film was superb, done without modern computronics, as was the excellent acting...
The Romans were actually excellent naval soldiers, despite their detractors. Fleets were based at Boulogne in France, Misenum and Ravenna in Italy, and Alexandria in Egypt. In fact there were naval bases all around the empire.
Fleets existed on the rivers, Rhine and Danube and we suspect, similar vessels patrolled the Eastern frontier as well. Many of Rome's greatest campaigns were 'combined ops' of Army and Navy, as when Agricola invaded Scotland in the late 70s AD.
Above we see a relief of another Man o' War with a forward castle. These are normally associated with the famous 'grab and hold hook' plank and hook or 'Corvus' (Crow), that the Romans used during the Ist Punic war to defeat the large seagoing power of ancient Carthage.
Octavian, who was to become the first Roman Emperor or Princeps defeated Marcus Antonius, his former ally and Triumvir at the sea-battle of Actium (above) in 31BC for hegemony of the Roman Empire. 
The admiral Agrippa, Octavian's friend and colleague was a superb general and sailor. A common man of rare ability and gifts, that one so often finds acting behind the scenes of the great and good: in fact a real 'Back Room Boy'.
(Photo left) The best example we have seen of a 're-enactor'! This is about right. The marine has used his head and understood the necessity of using the shoulder guards right down to the elbow! His armour (lorica) is dirty and worn as one would expect, rather than the trite shiny polished 'parade ground' look of most 'Living History' groups! Soldiers get dirty very quickly as part of their job. The whole point of parades is to restore and keep a sense of discipline and order in a military formation.
Such groups that insist on presenting themselves in 'parade style' mislead the public as to the reality and awful risks in war. A Roman legionary viewing these 'chocolate soldier' re-enactors would either shake his head in pity or laugh out loud. War is not like that. It is filthy, dangerous and death is a constant companion. Such false portaryals are an insult to those brave men of old and modern soldiers doing a rotten thankless task. The public need to understand in a time of unprecedented peace that soldiering is not about peacocks strutting about in shiny overpolished armour but a dangerous, often far from glamorous occupation. As ex-soldiers we look in disgust at this type of false portrayal. Only one group we have met keeps its armour dulled and dirty. Roman legionaries covered their armour in pig's fat to stop it shining and prevent it from rusting. A glint of polished steel would give a unit's position away and so the element of surprise...
Roman legionaries and marines also wore darkly coloured tunics, not white ones as believed by certain groups. Such white tunics would show up blood from wounds to an enemy, who upon seeing this would act in the same way as a wild animal would on seeing a wounded victim. He or it would close in for the kill.
When will these tin pot 're-enactors' realise things like this militate against correct interpretations of the past and thoroughly mislead the public? They are incredibly ignorant of matters military it seems with an overweening arrogance that really irritates those like us who have been real soldiers, even if we are now scholars! This was why we establshed SEFA/Legio IX Hispana.
In the British Army we call them 'The Never Seen it, Never Done it But We'll Tell You All about it Brigade!' And it gets up our noses believe us....A Roman helmet, a bit of armour, a shield, form a group, strut about in polished gear and they re all 'experts'. The trouble is they are not. Even we at SEFA who have spent nearly thirty years studying the Roman Army as professional scholars cannot make that claim...The more one reads and digs, the less one realises they actually know..But we do our best.
Cleopatra fled for Egypt and was followed by her lover. The Imperial period was born in the guise of the shattered 'restored respublica' of the Age of Augustus! The whole edifice was a sham to hide the rule of one man and his cabal. Rome never again allowed itself to be the plaything of competing oligarchs.....
The epitome of Anthony and Cleopatra, the film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor whose private lives reflected the on screen romance. This film is actually the best ever produced for accuracy of equipment and atmosphere from the time despite heavy criticism from film buffs...
Roman warship mosaic.
