naumachia
thumb|right|320px| (detail): an imaginative recreation by Ulpiano Checa, first exhibited in 1894. A naumachia (in Latin , from the Ancient Greek /, literally "naval combat") was a mock naval battle staged as mass entertainment by the Ancient Romans. The staging would typically occur in a specially-dug basin, also known as a naumachia.
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Early {{Lang|la|naumachiae}}
- {{Lang|la|Naumachia}} building
- {{Lang|la|Naumachiae}} in amphitheatres
- Water in the amphitheatres
- Decline of Roman {{Lang|la|naumachiae}}
- Post-Roman {{Lang|la|naumachiae}}
- In Scotland and England
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|right|320px| (detail): an imaginative recreation by Ulpiano Checa, first exhibited in 1894. A naumachia (in Latin , from the Ancient Greek /, literally "naval combat") was a mock naval battle staged as mass entertainment by the Ancient Romans. The staging would typically occur in a specially-dug basin, also known as a naumachia.
== Early == The first known was given by Julius Caesar in Rome in 46 BC on occasion of his quadruple triumph. After having a basin dug near the Tiber, capable of holding actual biremes, triremes and quinqueremes, he made 2,000 combatants and 4,000 rowers, all prisoners of war, fight. In 2 BC for the inauguration of the Temple of Mars Ultor ("Mars the Avenger"), Augustus gave a grander based on Caesar's model. This naumachia depicted a battle between the Greeks and the Persians and required a basin that was 365 by 550 meters, which was created straddling the Tiber. Res Gestæ (§ 23) claimed that 3000 men, not counting rowers, fought in 30 vessels with rams and several smaller boats.