Romans

• Julius Caesar trained what was likely Europe's first marine corps in his invasion of Gaul, or modern-day France. Early defeats forced Caesar to build real landing craft that could send fully armored soldiers straight onto the beach. There is not much known about these ships, though the design seemed to have been borrowed from the Irish light vessels that became better known in the early Middle Ages. The basic purpose was to develop a boat with a very shallow draft that was light enough to get onto the beach and be pulled up on dry land.
  
  

Byzantines

• The eastern Romans, sometimes called Byzantines or "Greeks," also took Caesar's idea for naval landing craft for marine landings. Like the western example, there is not much known about these crafts, but the Byzantines most definitely engaged in amphibious warfare. General Flavius Belisarius, under the famed Emperor Justinian, used marines to defeat the Vandal empire in Carthage as well as the Ostrogoths in southern Italy, both with amphibious landings. It seems that the larger "Dromon" ship contained some smaller vessels that could be used as landing craft, though, like always, these were small and drafted maybe a little more than a foot of water.
  
  

Vikings

• The best known of the marine landing crafts were the Viking "long-ships." These were actually in the medium range of Viking ships, drafting less than a foot of water and normally stretching to about 15 to 18 meters at most. These contained between 60 and 100 men, and were used with great effect to surprise armies in northern Europe, Britain, Ireland and even Byzantium in lightening-fast amphibious landings. These craft were small and light, and contained the absolute minimum of supplies. Vikings would take horses from the surrounding area and live off the land. These ships were built primarily for speed and efficiency.
  
  

Crusaders

• The first description of what sounds like a "modern" landing craft was used by Crusaders for amphibious landings in the Levant during the 11th and 12th centuries. The Venetians, expert ship builders and navigators, created about 50 "battle galleys" that had flat bows that could drop downward on the beach, permitting fully armored and mounted knights to immediately disembark, battle-ready. Given the design of this ship, it served as the model for later landing craft right up to the modern era.