Praefectus Classis

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Praefectus Classis.--The commander of a naval armament was thus called. It answers to our term Admiral of the Fleet, which under the republic was usually entrusted by the senate to men of consular or praetorian rank. Those who in M.  Antony's time enjoyed the maritime prefecture had his permission to place their names on his coins, as for example, L. ATRATINVS, L. BIBVLVS, M. OPPIVS CAPITO, who as PRAEF. CLAS., or Praefecti Classis, are, with the praetorian galley (the symbol of their prefecture), thus inscribed. For as to this day in maritime states, so amongst the Romans, in the fleet of the prefect, which consisted of a vast number of vessels, there was one which took precedence of all others, as the "Admiral's ship." --That both the Pompeys, father and son, claimed the empire of the sea as a charge delegated to them by the senate is shown, under different titles, on well-known denarii of that family, which designate the parent as MAGN. PRO. COS., with the prow of a galley; and Sextus, the son, as PRAEF. CLASS. ET. ORAE MARIT.
A prefect of the British fleet is recorded in an inscription found at Lymne, in Kent.--"Report on Excavations made on the site of the roman Castrum at Lymne," pl. vii., by C. Roach Smith.