Following these events a new permanent fleet was created to garrison and patrol the Pontus Euxinus (today's Black Sea): the Classis Pontica.

In 255, the Goths undertook a new attack, this time by sea, along the coast of Asia Minor, after commandeering numerous vessels from the Cimmerian Bosporus, an ally of Rome.

The first to seize these vessels, however, were the Borans, who, traveling along the eastern coast of the Black Sea, pushed on to the very edge of the Roman Empire, near the city of Pityus, which fortunately for it had a very solid walled enclosure and a well-equipped harbor.

[4] The Goths, on the other hand, having departed with their ships from the Crimean peninsula, reached the mouth of the Phasis River (located in the Guria region of Georgia, in the vicinity of the present town of Sukhumi[5]); they also advanced toward Pityus, which they succeeded this time in occupying, partly because Successianus, who had been promoted prefect of the Praetorium, had followed Emperor Valerian to Antioch.

[...] The barbarians seized great wealth and a large number of prisoners [...] and after destroying the temples, buildings and all that was beautiful and magnificent, they returned home with many ships.Loaded by now with huge spoils, on their way back they also sacked the city of Panticapaeum, in present-day Crimea, disrupting the grain supplies needed by the Romans in that region.

[12] Ten years after the first major invasion, in late 267-early 268,[13] the Goths, together with Peucini, the "newcomers" to the region of the present-day Azov Sea, the Heruli and numerous other peoples launched the most astonishing invasion of the third century from the mouth of the Tyras River (near the city of the same name), which disrupted the coasts and hinterland of the Roman provinces of Asia Minor, Thracia, and Achaia facing the Pontus Euxinus and the Aegean Sea.

The Goths were also beaten in a naval battle by the general Venerian, and he himself died during the fight.And so the various tribes of Scythia, such as Peucini, Greuthungi, Ostrogoths, Thervingi, Visigoths, Gepids, Celts and Heruli, lured by the hope of loot, came to Roman soil and wrought great devastation here, while Claudius was engaged in other actions (against the Alamanni, ed.

)The main port of the Classis Pontica was placed at Trapezous (today's Trabzon in Turkey) after the annexation of Pontus around 63 B.C.,[17] used for patrolling especially the eastern part of the Black Sea.

[1] Another important military base of the fleet, protecting the western part of the Black Sea and the straits of the Dardanelles, was Cyzicus, which had a number of vessels in Caesar's time.

[26] For the Pontic provincial fleet, the number of personnel was around a few thousand classiarii, which was increased by the fourth century with the creation of Legio I Pontica.