References to "supreme commander" in my post were purely an example.Thanas wrote:Yes. But it does not mean supreme commander, it just means he is the commander of the fleet. If it was a prefect rank a praefectus classis at the Rhine for example might command about 200 ships, whereas a praefectus classis of Egypt might command several times that much. The praefectus classis is the highest fleet commander there is, but he is not the supreme commander, that would be the magister militum of the area or the Emperor.Simon_Jester wrote:HI assume that this comes down to the definition of the words in the title, so that there should be a 'supreme' in an English translation of the rank? If I understand you correctly, the reason there cannot be more than one praefectus classis per fleet is about the same as the reason there cannot be more than one "supreme commander" in an army: if there are two commanders of the same rank, one or the other is not supreme.
What I'm getting at is that... well. Consider the Age of Sail- the oared galley gave way to the seagoing 'ship of the line,' and major fleet battles were decided by large fleets of sailing vessels in long parallel lines, pounding at each other with broadsides of naval gunfire. The British soon learned that this kind of naval formation was extremely unwieldy for a singly admiral to command, because a fleet deployed in line of battle could easily stretch for kilometers, given reasonable spacing between the ships. Moreover, each ship masked the view of others in the line, making communication difficult since any signal would have to be passed up or down the line in a game of 'telephone.'
So the British broke up the command of the battle-line into three squadrons, put the 'admiral' in the center squadron, a 'vice-admiral' who worked closely with the admiral in the lead squadron (which took the worst of the fighting), and a 'rear admiral' in the junior, trainee position of commanding the back third of the line (the position of least danger and responsibility). Other navies of the era did much the same, to solve the same problems.
Now, the Romans would no doubt respond in different ways, but if the Roman Empire found itself commanding a great many sailing ships in the gunpowder era they would be forced to deal with the practical problems. The idea that the supreme admiral of this fleet might subdivide his command among a small number of responsible, level-headed senior officers junior to himself would still hold.
You would expect to find some officer rank between that of the individual ship captains and the admiral commanding the whole fleet- and not just officers responsible for some ad hoc territorial station like "commander of the six ships anchored at this port." The need to fight efficiently in dispersed formations would make them change the process, even if the command structure stayed territorial.
And as in real history, this would also help the navy to formalize a rank structure more precise than "who has the most imperium, commands," which is an added advantage and reduces the risk of military blunders.
Yes, they never did so, and never needed to- because there never was such a thing as a 'modern' Rome; Rome always operated under the constraints of ancient and medieval technology and social organization.That depends. They never did so until the very end of 1453 for the simple reason that the army and Navy were organized alongside regions.One, a Roman-derived culture that modernized, going through the gunpowder era and the Industrial Revolution, would probably come up with a more formal seniority system than "who has the most imperium, commands." Divisions of ranks within the title of a fleet-commander would evolve naturally, just as in real life the rank of "admiral" divided during the Age of Sail into 'rear,' 'vice,' and 'full' admirals.
I think it's legitimate, if we posit a modern Rome, to posit that Rome would be forced to adapt to the pressures of modern technology. That's what happened to real societies, after all. Putting "SPQR" on the banners will not change the reality that a navy with radio communication between the ships is going to need a shoreside staff and bureaucracy to coordinate things. So some titles, offices, and practices would need to be invented, although they would co-exist with other offices and practices we today would find strange.
Very well.The Romans already had such overall commanders, for example the Magister Militum who commanded all Navy and Army operations. The Byzantines had a seperate Naval command during their existence.
