Rome, a. C. 46. To celebrate the victory in the battle of Tapso, Julius Caesar organized the first shipwreck, the spectacle of maritime battles. To do so, he ordered the building of a warehouse near the Tiber, where the real Birremes, Trirremes and Quatrirremes were disputed. There were 2,000 combatants and 4,000 rams, all of them elected from the prisoners of war.

In the 15th century a. In Year 2, Emperor Augustus wanted to overcome Caesar's nauseating with the excuse of the inauguration of the temple of Mars Ultor: It used 3,000 gudulars, 30 espolones and many other smaller boats.

All brands were broken by Claudio. 52: It brought together 19,000 naumachiarii or combatant, according to Tacit. He didn't build, like everybody else, a swamp. It needed a bigger surface and it used Lake Fucino. In addition, he organized the show on the occasion of the beginning of the drainage works of the lake. He had cut the hill that stretches between the lake and the Liris River, so that the multitude had an appropriate perspective of the naval battle. Tacit wrote that “despite being criminals, they fought with the courage of the brave warriors and, after having received many wounds, they were forgiven their lives.” The survivors, of course.

We don't know the number or percentage of forced wrestlers dying in shipwrecks. But the losses would be enormous, since in that monstrous shipwreck of 52, before the beginning of the battle, the gudulars greeted the emperor with the phrase Morituri salutant (the one who is going to die greets him). Although it has been considered as a traditional formula for the farewell of the emperor by gladiators, there is no certainty that the famous phrase was said in the ruins of the circus. The only proof that he has said these words is Claudio's shipwreck.

The wild spectacle had a cultural component, as it covered historical topics. Thus, in Caesar's Nausea they represented the naval forces of Egypt and Tyre, in Auguste Persia and Athens, and in Claudio, Sicionia and Rhodes.

From that moment onwards, amphitheatre flooding systems were installed, such as the Colosseum of Rome, which allowed smaller naumakis to be built. However, the struggles were very expensive and extinguished with the splendor of the Empire.