Jim Webster & The Aegates Island Slingshot 364

[Monad]

Jim, so you don't die wondering but Polybius's 200 Roman ships at the Aegates Island has been rounded from 198 ships, with the consul commanding 132 and the praetor 66 ships.

Diodorus numbers the Roman fleet that sailed to Sicily at 1,000 ships, consisting of 300 quinqueremes and 700 transports and carriers. (3) Diodorus, Eutropius, Orosius and Sextus Aurelius number the Roman fleet at 300 ships. This is a rounded number but is close to the mark. After deducting the revictual fleet that protected the anchorage, this leaves 198 ships to face the Carthaginians. Diodorus also claims the 300 Roman ships also had 700 transports. As 2 consular fleets amount to 350 ships, Diodorus or his source has mistakenly allocated each consul 350 ships, which strangely, have been converted to transports. Not the first time either.

Good article by the way.

[Jim Webster]

Jim, so you don't die wondering but Polybius's 200 Roman ships at the Aegates Island has been rounded from 198 ships, with the consul commanding 132 and the praetor 66 ships.

Diodorus numbers the Roman fleet that sailed to Sicily at 1,000 ships, consisting of 300 quinqueremes and 700 transports and carriers. (3) Diodorus, Eutropius, Orosius and Sextus Aurelius number the Roman fleet at 300 ships. This is a rounded number but is close to the mark. After deducting the revictual fleet that protected the anchorage, this leaves 198 ships to face the Carthaginians. Diodorus also claims the 300 Roman ships also had 700 transports. As 2 consular fleets amount to 350 ships, Diodorus or his source has mistakenly allocated each consul 350 ships, which strangely, have been converted to transports. Not the first time either.

Good article by the way.

I confess that must admit that I was more interested in the type of ships than the number. I also wonder at times what proportion of legionaries travelled by transport and what proportion were told off to serve as marines. Some of this would depend on whether there was any plan to do anything with the fleet, separately to the army. Certainly there are times where the fleet seems to have been pulled out of the water once the army 'disembarked' and other times where the fleet actually did something.
It's one of those things that I keep feeling I ought to look into   

[Monad]

Before Caesar's time, especially during the Punic Wars and after, the only transports in a fleet were horse transports. The infantry and cavalry for a consular army were conveyed by warships. When at their anchorage, the revictual fleet, which was part of the consular fleet, screened the anchorage. During the campaign, parts of the fleet were conveying new replacements and those that had been discharged. There was a lot of back and forth between the home country and the country of conflict.