h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Roman Navy 1674 - A69448440
Author: bobstafford - U3151547

Please comment and suggest any improvements please. This is part of a set full details of the others, and links can be found on the top of the entry.

Thanks

Bob, in the lists of fleets in the 2nd half of the Entry, the repetition of the phrase <> becomes tedious. Could you not put a note at the top of the list such as:

Then each list item could be simply given as, for example:
<>

Note the leading 'The' before Classis is unnecessary.

Sounds a good idea to me thanks I am too close cant see the wood for the trees sometimes.

Note the leading 'The' before Classis is unnecessary. Not sure what you ment here...

I have the rest that what do you think

For example, your first 2 fleets could be:

Classis Ravenatis - Ravenna on the east coast of Italy.
Classis Misenensis - Portus Julius on the west coast of Italy.

Same for all the other fleets

Have a look all done waiting for comment mate

I think the lists look and read much better now Bob. In my previous post (#5) what I meant was for you to delete the word 'The' that you have at the beginning of every fleet in the list. They are not needed. Post #5 shows how the first two fleets in the Praetorian Fleets section should look when you've deleted the word 'The'. You can then do the same change to the other fleet names in the Provinces and Fluvial sections.

Also you have and GuideML tags around the sentence I suggested you added at the start of the list. Could you remove them please.

All sorted

Hello - a couple of suggestions, I'm afraid.

Firstly, should quinquereme in the sentence 'This new fleet was made up of triremes and a few quinquereme' be 'quinqueremes'?

Secondly, I'd like to see footnote 2 start with a capital F.

Other than that, good work!

<BB<

Oh, and one thought - should Constantinople be worthy of a footnote saying 'Modern Istanbul'? Possibly not - but could be considered... Hmmm...

<BB<

Thanks <BB< all 3 suggestions done comments welcome.

Hiya Bob
This is looking almost ship-shape

A few nitpicks:

Hadrian’s Wall = curly apostrophe (could you replace it please)

it is important to realise that most of Rome’s = curly apostrophe (could you replace it please)

It was not until 260 BC, that the threat from the naval forces of Carthage forced Rome to create a fleet to defend its borders during the Punic Wars.2
=
1) no need for that comma after 260 BC
2) Footnote 2 is adrift of the punctuation, could you move it to the end of the word "Wars" please

After the destruction of Carthage the Roman navy expanded and eventually gained control over the whole of the Mediterranean and area of about, 2.5 million square kilometres.

1) comma after Mediterranean
2) and area = an area
3) remove the comma after "about"

The Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum our sea.
=
The Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum (Our Sea).

This provides a basic profile of the scope of the Roman navy and the fleets that saw service from the fall of Carthage, to the withdrawing of Roman forces from Britain. = should start "This Entry (?) provides a basic...
also I think that paragraph would be better in the "The Roman Fleets" section, thus:

The Mediterranean became so quiet that it has been referred to as the Roman Boating Lake with only the danger of pirates to deal with. However, the channel fleet the Classis Britannica and the Rhine, Danube and Black Sea fleets were kept in active patrolling the frontier and dealing with raiders.
The Roman Fleets
This [entry] provides a basic profile of the scope of the Roman navy and the fleets that saw service from the fall of Carthage, to the withdrawing of Roman forces from Britain. There is a considerable amount of evidence from some parts of the Empire and almost nothing from others. Due to the less obvious role they played in the defence of the Empire some of the fluvial fleets have been almost overlooked and may have been included in the garrison of the nearest fort but none will have been deliberately missed out. The fort of Arbeia modern South Shields, on Hadrian's Wall is an example. The garrison roster included a Company of Bargemen (or boatmen) from the Tigris but there is no fleet or squadron of the Classis Britannica recorded in that area. The Company of Tigris bargemen were a military company so they were not civilian or merchant sailors. There is little doubt that some might have been overlooked as there are many places around the Empire where there may have been a fort with a base, or the very least an anchorage. In the following list, the name of each fleet is followed by its home port or ports.

I think the headers:
The Praetorian Fleets, The Fleets In The Provinces, The Fluvial Fleets should be subheaders.

The Mediterranean became so quiet that it has been referred to as the Roman Boating Lake with only the danger of pirates to deal with. very good Bob, that made me smile

GB

All done thanks GB

Another amazing article Bob. I think this is another 5/5.
I've learnt a lot from you. You could be a university lecturer on history. You'd do a very good job.

again Robb

Any more comments

The history in the first section is still all over the place. You start by talking about the Mediterranean being so peaceful that only the frontier fleets had any action, then you say that for the first 250 years the fleets only operated in the Mediterranean. Rewrite it so that things happen in the order in which they actually occurred.

The best way to do this is to put in headers such as "The Founding of the Navy", "The First 250 Years", "The Action Moves to the Frontiers", "The Decline of the Fleets" and so on. You should choose these titles yourself. Then move each paragraph so that it is in the correct section.

Some more trivial suggestions:

During the period that corresponded approximately with the end of the Roman republic and the reign of Emperor Claudius -- this sounds as if the end of the Roman republic and the reign of Emperor claudius are two different descriptions of the same time. Rephrase this:

During the period approximately between the end of the Roman republic and the reign of Emperor Claudius

and so had to rely on the conquered seafaring nations were regarded as inferior provincials -- add the word "who" before "were regarded".

The roman navy relied upon the Greeks, Egyptians and other conquered seafaring nations. -- combine this with the previous sentence as it seems to say almost exactly the same thing.

"The military levies therefore were only granted auxiliary status;" -- this doesn't appear to make sense. A levy is a tax, isn't it?

"So when Caesar launched his expeditions to Britain and Claudius his invasion they both had to build a fleet to complete the task, as the navy had ships that were suitable for the conditions of the channel waters." -- did you mean to say "did not have ships"? If not, I don't understand this at all.

"The Fleets Roman Of The Roman Empire" -- what does the first "Roman" mean here?

Portus Julius - please say where this is/was.

Agean --> Aegean

In the section on the River Rhine, you explain what a fluvial fleet is. You don't need to do this, since you already explain about fluvial fleets in the previous paragraph.

Please don't refer to Julius Caesar just by the name "Caesar", since every Roman emperor also bore this name.

Looks like this is the one to get working on, bob

Hello

Trivial suggestions section attended to please comment.

Just thinking about the best way to sort the front end ideas welcome.