SoA Forums

What do we know about the Veneti and their Navy, which Caesar's fleet defeated during his conquest of Gaul?

How similar would the Veneti ships, tactics and sailors have been to the Roman ones?  Does the existence of a Veneti fleet indicate that the Veneti was a more advanced tribe than most other Gauls? (or is that an outdated stereotype?)

Have you actually looked at what Caesar says about the matter? That would be a good place to start.

The romanseas range has modesl of Veneti ships, with an illustration.

I've read Wikipedia's paraphrasing of that, but wondered if there was some wider/deeper knowledge on the forum.

OK, there's some references in this thesis including a not-very-well-reproduced reconstruction drawing (fig. 3..

Can we really call it a Veneti 'fleet'? Isn't it more likely to be a collection of trading vessels? Is there any other seapower in the area that the Veneti might have fought and therefore developed tactics against? If not I rather suspect that the Romans have an enormous advantage in terms of working together in a cohesive manner.
Roy

Quote from: aligern on October 05, 2018, 07:58:59 PM
Can we really call it a Veneti 'fleet'? Isn't it more likely to be a collection of trading vessels? Is there any other seapower in the area that the Veneti might have fought and therefore developed tactics against? If not I rather suspect that the Romans have an enormous advantage in terms of working together in a cohesive manner.
Roy

Good point about the other sea powers, though the implication in Caesar's text seems to be that the Veneti ships were specifically built for sea battles!

Caesar says the Veneti had help from neighbouring tribes and even from Britain - though it's not 100% clear whether he means the allies actually provided ships, rather than just troops to be transported. But it does suggest the possibility that they weren't the only local seapower, just the biggest and least submissive.