Classe

Classe (Latin meaning ‘Fleet’) was the Roman Naval Harbour located 2.5 miles (4km) from Ravenna, in Italy.
It was home to the Classis Ravennas, the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, one of the two Imperial Fleets of Italy.

The Roman Navy had two fleets in Italy, one at Classe, Ravenna and the other at Misenum, Naples, home of the Western Mediterranean Fleet.
Classe was built between 35-12 BCE by Augustus. He constructed the harbour on stilts, in a Lagoon surrounded by marshes. The harbour was unapproachable by land.
There was a Canal, the Fossa Augusta, which connected the Harbour at Classe to the River Po.
Unlike Portus and Ostia, there was no hexagonal basin.
Classe had 250 ships in the third century CE and it is thought that 10,000 men worked either as sailors or in the workshops to maintain the fleet.
Trajan (98-117 CE) built a 22 mile (35km) Aqueduct to Ravenna which must have supplied Classe.
Classe controlled the Adriatic Sea.
Despite the closure of the other Italian Naval Base, the Classis Misenum in 324 CE, Classe seems to have survived intact between 324 – 383 CE. However, sometime between 383 and 450 CE, the Fleet disappears from the record.

Dio Cassius, but although his Work did not survive, he was quoted by Jordanes writing in the 6th century CE.

The Park is located in Ravenna and holds the ruins of the Naval Base of the Ravenna Fleet.
The base was home to the Classis Ravennas with 10,000 men and a large fleet of war galleys.

Classe Archeological Park, Ravenna