Claudius' Naumachia on Fucine Lake (Those About To Die, chap III)

Those About To Die (via Kurt Saxon) ^ | 1950s (I believe) | Daniel P. Mannix

[SunkenCiv]

The greatest naumachia of all time was the naval engagement staged by Claudius. As Augustus' lake was too small, the mad emperor decided to use the Fucine Lake (now called the Lago di Fucino) some sixty miles to the east of Rome. This lake had no natural outlet and in the spring it often flooded many miles of surrounding county. To overcome this trouble, a tunnel three and a half miles long had been cut through solid rock from the lake to the Litis River to carry off the surplus water. This job had taken thirty thousand men eleven years to finish. For the dedication of the opening of this tunnel, Claudius decided to stage a fight between two navies on the lake. The galleys previously used in such engagements had been small craft with only one bank of oars. For this fight, there were to be twenty-four triremes (three banks of oars), all regulation ocean-going warships—and twenty-six bi-remes (double bank). This armada was divided into two fleets of twenty-five ships each and manned by nineteen hundred criminals under the command of two famous gladiators. One fleet was to represent the Rho-dians and the other the Sicilians and both groups wore the appropriate costumes... A big tent had even been put up to care for the wounded after the battle—after all, prisoners were scarce and the survivors could always be used again in other spectacles. As matters turned out, the tent served another purpose. Fifteen women in the crowd gave birth during the fight and had to be cared for in the tent. It is an interesting example of the mob's passion for these fights that women in advanced pregnancy traveled sixty miles from Rome so as not to miss the naumachia.

[SunkenCiv]

Someone named Kurt Saxon has posted the entire text of this cheesy old garage sale paperback. This quote is about the Roman answer to Woodstock.

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[SunkenCiv]

I'm 100 per cent sure I've posted this in another topic, but couldn't find it. So, again, here it is (or, here it is again).

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[Knitting A Conundrum]

Thanks for the link! I'd run across that site before but forgot to bookmark it.

[bert]

Claudius mad? Crazy like a fox I think.

[backhoe]

Good Lord, I remember Kurt Saxon from the old Survivalist days, years & years ago.

[Graymatter]

Morituri ping.

[SunkenCiv]

:') He was a nutty guy, but coherent and with focus, unlike his predecessor Gaius (Caligula).

[FastCoyote]

This is great stuff, but I need to find a link to the two royal barges they dug up in 1920 from one of the lakes. Unfortunately they were destroyed in WWII, but they were 200 feet long.

[FastCoyote]

Oooops, it was Caligula's barge in Lake Nemi. http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,737289,00.html
[
Nineteen centuries of foundered orgy looked up at the hydroairplane which last week waltzed high over Lake Nemi in the Alban hills back of Rome. And Giuseppe Cultrera, Etruscan scholar in the plane,* looked down from the vantage of his flying height through Nemi's waters and could see what none but groping divers theretofore had seen—the sunken Golden Barge whereon epileptic Emperor Caligula†, great-grandson of Augustus, and his minions held their carouses.

Two vessels lie on Lake Nemi's bottom. Centuries of slime cover them, and rocks that have slipped from the steep sides of the Alban crater which contains the lake. One of them, the smaller, is certainly Caligula's. Treasure hunters since the 15th century have tried to raise the barge, un successfully and to its great damage. Some years ago one adventurer yanked loose a lead pipe. On it was an inscription which referred to Caligula. The float was decorated with marble, mosaics and carved woodwork.

Where past salvagers failed to raise Caligula's barge, Premier Mussolini's scientific henchmen were last week succeeding by an inverse procedure. Four great electric pumps, which they had set up at Lake Nemi's edge, were lowering the water level. By April 21, the 2,280th anniversary of Rome's legendary founding, they must, according to their instructions, uncover the vessel. Last week only a few feet of water remained above it. It is probable that the pumpers will make their schedule and the curious may gloat at the water-logged site of Caligula's orgies.

Exactly 1,888 years ago last week Caligula was assassinated for insult to a Praetorian tribune. He was only 29, but into the few years of his manhood he packed a rare amount of extravagance, cruelty, debauchery. ]

for a pic:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mharrsch/2005_08_01_academicpres_archive.html

[SunkenCiv]

Fascinating, would have made a great topic of its own.

[FastCoyote]

http://www.romaeterna.org/

An even cooler link, though you have to fish around cause it's in Italian.

[FastCoyote]

Add the next link I posted and it really is a great topic. One of you guys should do it so it's done right.

[SunkenCiv]

Salvaging Caligula [Nemi Ships, Caligula, and Mussolini]
Time | Feb. 4, 1929 | staff
Posted on 11/25/2005 7:40:21 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1528600/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Just BTTTing, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 11/24/2005, re-ping.

[M Kehoe]

So I’m Claudius, and I get bored easily.

I got an idea. I’ll make two fleets of twenty five ships, put my political prisoners, cough, criminals on board and from my tent (oops, huh what’s happening, you can’t do that in here...), watch them kill each other.

Hey, better than the Olympics.

5.56mm

[blam]

The Lago Di Fucino Tunnel, Pictures

How Italy Drained Its Third Largest Lake

[SunkenCiv]

Seems like there has been a recent study of the tunnel, spelunkers, maybe not, took Claudius’ people 13 years to dig the thing.

[SunkenCiv]

Give SPQR what they want. :^)