Roman Marines

Rome like any military power in the ancient world required a navy, and in a time before cannons and long range anti ship weapons, it was necessary to sink or capture a ship the hard way. Ramming it or boarding it. As such any good ship required a fighting force for both boarding the enemy and to fight back any boarding enemies.Though many assume that the Romans lacked any sort of Naval presence until the 1st Punic War, in truth they had been operating some sort of fleet since the early 4th century B.C. with the earliest known naval action of the Romans being a battle between them and the Volscians near Antinum in 338 B.C.

Early on, the men levied for naval service as Marines and Oarsmen likley came from the lower classes and the capite censi. As cities in Italy fell to or sided with the Rome, cities with strong naval, traditions, such as Neapolis, Tarentum, Paestum and Thurii, were for a time exempt from the standard levy of Socii in return for providing both warshsips and naval crews. One can assume they likely also provided Marines.

Early Roman marines were likely armed in a similar manner to leves and other Roman light infantry, with their socii allies likely arming themselves in their own traidtional styles. Considering this, it's not a stretch to say some would've been armed as Hoplites as there is both evidence for in Greece both before and after this time period.