When was the corvus invented

In this way, the Romans turned a sea battle into a land battle. The corvus did have a disadvantage, it made the Roman boats top-heavy, and difficult to maneuver. In BC, the Romans won a decisive battle against the Carthaginian navy at Mylae off the northern coast of Sicily using the corvus. As time went on, the Roman navy improved to the point where the corvus was no longer necessary. Neither side could win a decisive victory in Sicily, so the Romans decided to build a large fleet of ships and invade Africa.

By taking the conflict to the Carthaginian homeland, Rome thought the Carthaginians would accept peace on Roman terms. This army, however, was defeated by Xanthippus, the Spartan, who was hired by the Carthaginians to improve their army. On the island of Sicily, one Carthaginian commander had been very successful fighting the Roman army, his name was Hamilcar Barca. Rome eventually cut off supplies coming into to Sicily from Africa with their navy, and Hamilcar and Carthage were eventually forced to sue for peace.

This made Hamilcar Barca angry and frustrated. Hamilcar had to agree to leave Sicily with his African mercenary hired soldiers army and return to Africa. Rome won the first Punic War when Carthage agreed to terms in BC, in doing so, Rome became the dominant navy in the Mediterranean Sea, Carthage had to pay for war damages, and Rome took control of all of the Carthaginian lands on the island of Sicily. Hamilcar Barca was determined to seek revenge against the Romans.

The bad feelings between these two powers was just beginning! First Punic War timeline BC. Outcome — Rome takes Sicily , then Sardinia and Corsica. Carthage pays a heavy fine. Giotto's Site Penfield. Mister Giotto's Home Page. Class notes. Giotto's Online Textbook. The Stone Ages. The next time they encountered the Carthaginian fleet, the Romans headed straight for them, got in close enough, and put the corvus to use.

The corvus was a sort of running board or ramp that had a sort of natural locking mechanism on each end in the form of handles. The Romans would lock end on their ship, heave the corvus toward an enemy ship, lock the other end on that ship, and storm troops across.

Now, this required precision and was dependent on the ability of the Roman ships to keep pace with enemy ships and avoid the occasional hurled missile from those enemy ships. But once the corvus was in place, those two ships were locked together and the mighty Roman legions could walk across a plank onto the surface of the enemy ship and engage the enemy troops in hand-to-hand combat. This was the Roman version of turning a sea battle into a land battle.

The effectiveness of the corvus was devastating to the Carthaginians. It meant that they no longer ruled the seas. With such a means of commerce and protection and attack lost, they were reduced to such foolhardy measures as Hannibal 's crossing the Alps, a thousand-mile detour forced by the Romans' bottling up of the Med south of Italy. The invention of the corvus indirectly led to Roman victories in the Punic Wars and cemented Roman might and reputation as supreme in the Mediterranean world.

On the prow stood a round pole, seven meters in height and 30 centimeters in diameter. This pole had a pulley at the summit and round it was put a gangway made of cross planks attached by nails, 1.

The gangway also had a railing on each of its long sides as high as a man's knee. At its extremity was fastened an iron object like a pestle pointed at one end and with a ring at the other end [ To this ring was attached a rope with which, when the ship charged an enemy, they raised the ravens by means of the pulley on the pole and let them down on the enemy's deck, sometimes from the prow and sometimes bringing them round when the ships collided broadsides.

Once the ravens were fixed in the planks of the enemy's deck and grappled the ships together, if they were broadside on, they boarded from all directions but if they charged with the prow, they attacked by passing over the gangway of the raven itself two abreast.

The leading pair protected the front by holding up their shields, and those who followed secured the two flanks by resting the rims of their shields on the top of the railing.

As for Gaius Duillius, no sooner had he learnt of the disaster which had befallen the commander of the naval forces than handing over his legions to the military tribunes he proceeded to the fleet. Learning that the enemy were ravaging the territory of Mylae, he sailed against them with his whole force. The Carthaginians on sighting him put to sea with a sail, quite overjoyed and eager, as they despised the inexperience of the Romans.