Vegetius on Liburnae: Naval Terminology in the Late Roman Period

Abstract

The last section of Book 4 of Vegetius’ Epitoma Rei Militaris, generally known as the praecepta belli naualis, is devoted to naval matters. This article looks, in particular, at Vegetius’s ostensibly confusing treatment of liburnae, which has caused several scholars to question the reliability of much of what he wrote regarding warfare at sea. The study argues that, by the Late Empire, the term liburna had come to have multiple meanings. In particular, those meanings differed from the original meaning of liburna, which referred to a lighter type of galley from the Illyrian region, and likely could even encompass vessels propelled exclusively by sail, such as those ships used to transport troops in Mediterranean waters. Indeed, in some cases, Vegetius’s liburna seems to be more or less synonymous with nauis. It emerges that determining the context of Vegetius’s use of liburna is essential with respect to arriving at the utility of the information that he provides throughout his naval praecepta, with the passage of time meaning that his discussion of earlier vessels that he calls liburnae can contain significant misunderstandings of how such galleys were built and functioned.