Naumachia

As naumachia were in ancient times both trailing naval battles as well as the facilities in which these spectacles took place, respectively. There also is a garden artistic design element.

History

The first naumachia was 46 BC organized by Caesar, who had specially create for this purpose, an artificial lake in the Campus Martius. In this spectacle a battle between Phoenician and Egyptian ships was presented. At this battle to four thousand rowers and two thousand soldiers who participated deck, so that estimates of the historian Fik Meijer total of 22 ships were involved. The crowd of spectators was so great that had to camp out on the streets of Rome arriving outside viewers.

Augustus had 2 BC established the first permanent naumachia, which was therefore later called vetus naumachia and had a magnitude of 540 by 350 meters.

The largest naumachia let Claudius align AD 52 on the Fucino, once the largest inland waters of central Italy. In the middle of the lake he had to build a mechanical Tritons, which heralded the beginning of the battle with a fanfare. It fought on both sides depending 19,000 slaves on 50 ships. Prior to this naumachia the combatants saluted the Roman emperor with the cry:

This greeting is generally associated with gladiators. However, it is not established that ever held a gladiator fight in which the gladiators responded in this way the Roman emperor.

Nero, which it preferred to align naumachiae in amphitheaters left, but crocodiles and other animals swim around in the water to increase the tension.

The fighters involved in the naumachiae was called the Naumachiarii. Like the gladiators, they were usually slaves, prisoners of war or condemned to death; by a good performance could attain this freedom.

In the Baroque period the naumachiae were revived for the amusement of courtly society. So Brandenburg lake were about the same (now drained ) fought naval battles in Bayreuth, just before an artificial maritime scenery around the lighthouse Moritzburg ( Saxony). One of the most ancient form of simulated naumachia was located in the Parc Monceau (Paris). Also " battles " with remote-controlled model ships can be counted among the naumachiae.