Fact Finder - History

During the First Punic War, the Romans faced a significant disadvantage: they were masters of land warfare, while the Carthaginians were experts at sea. To compensate for their lack of naval experience, the Romans invented the 'corvus' (meaning 'crow' or 'raven'). This was a bridge with a heavy metal spike on the underside, attached to the bow of a Roman ship. When a Carthaginian vessel came close, the Romans would drop the corvus onto the enemy deck, where the spike would pin the two ships together. This transformed a naval battle into a land battle, allowing Rome's superior legionaries to board the enemy ship and fight hand-to-hand. While effective, the corvus made Roman ships top-heavy and unstable in rough weather, leading to several catastrophic shipwrecks, and it was eventually abandoned. However, it secured the crucial victory at the Battle of Mylae, Rome's first major naval success.