Praefectus classis
Praefectus classis This title was frequently given in the times of the Republic to the commander of a fleet (Liv. 26.48, 7, 36.42, 1, as contrasted with praefecti navium, the commanders of the several ships); but Augustus appointed two permanent officers with this title, one of whom was stationed at Ravenna on the Adriatic and the other at Misenum on the Tuscan sea, each having the command of a fleet. (Suet. Aug. 49; Veget. 4.32; Tac. Ann. 4.5, Hist. 3.12.) These were also of equestrian rank, in some cases even freedmen (Tac. Ann. 14.3; Hist. 2.100).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.