{"id":55995,"date":"2019-10-21T20:14:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T18:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/ciekawostka\/corvus-roman-method-of-fighting-at-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T19:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:00:23","slug":"corvus-roman-method-of-fighting-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/corvus-roman-method-of-fighting-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Corvus – Roman method of fighting at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The primary method of attacking the Roman fleet<\/a> was by boarding. Rome<\/a> developed its power through a land army<\/a>; naval combat was a problem for a long time, and lack of skill often led to defeats. The solution was the “raven” (corvus<\/em>), a ramp equipped with two or one spike (resembling a bird’s beak, hence the name) for boarding. It allowed for the introduction of the tactic of quickly jumping to the enemy and using the infantry force at sea. <\/p>\n

The ancient Romans had their first contact with sea combat – on a larger scale – during the First Punic War<\/a> (264-241 BCE). Despite the construction of ships based on a captured Carthaginian ship, still, the technique of building ships of the Romans and their allies was far from Carthaginian craftsmanship. Moreover, the skills of the rowers, the officers of Carthage<\/a> and the mercenaries surpassed the rivals.<\/p>\n

The uninteresting situation in which the Roman sea fleet found itself and its initial defeats forced one to look for a new method of combat. We do not know the originator of the use of the boarding bridge. Adrian Goldsworthy suggests it may have been a Sicilian or a young Archimedes<\/a>; however, the lack of information about the inventor’s name suggests that the Romans did not want to share the success.<\/p>\n

The Latin name corvus<\/em> did not appear in ancient sources and was later created, probably based on the Greek name of Polybius<\/a> – corax. <\/em>Corvus<\/em> was about 11 meters long and 1.2 wide. There was a knee-high railing on either side. The deck was attached to a column in the centre, more than 7 meters high. Ropes and pulleys were used to rotate the platform, which allowed the platform to be lowered to the left or right side and forward.<\/p>\n

First, corvus<\/em> was used in 260 BCE during the Battle of Cape Mylae<\/a>. The Carthaginian commanders, trusting in their navigational skills, which the slow and inexperienced Roman fleet<\/a> lacked, disregarded the mysterious structures rising on the enemy ships. But soon their confidence turned to horror as the piers descended, holding thirty Phoenicians<\/a>, and the dominant Roman naval forces turned the naval combat into a land battle. Carthage was defeated and, according to various sources, lost 30 to 50 ships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":99278,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kategorie_ciekawostek":[80],"class_list":["post-55995","ciekawostki","type-ciekawostki","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_ciekawostek-army"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/55995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ciekawostki"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/55995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_ciekawostek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_ciekawostek?post=55995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}