Corvus (weapon)
A
corvus (meaning "raven" in
Latin) was a
Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the
First Punic War against
Carthage.
In the Book III of his
History,
Polybius describes the
corvus like a bridge 1.2
m (4
ft) wide and 10.9 m (36 ft) long, with a small
parapet on both sides. The engine was probably used in the
prow of the ship, where a system of
pulleys and a pole allowed the bridge to be raised and lowered. There was a heavy spike shaped as a bird's
beak on the underside of the device, hence the name "raven". The spike was designed to pierce the enemy ship's deck when the
corvus was lowered. This allowed a firm grip between the vessels and a boarding route for the
legionaries.
In the
3rd century BC, Rome was not a naval power and had little or no experience in war at sea. In fact, before the first Punic war, the Roman Republic had not campaigned outside the Italian Peninsula. The Republic's military strength was on land, and her greatest assets were the discipline and courage of her soldiers. The
corvus allowed her to use her army against the superior Carthaginian navy. The Romans' application of boarding tactics worked; they won several battles, most notably those of
Mylae,
Sulci,
Tyndaris, and
Ecnomus.Despite its advantages, the
corvus had serious drawbacks: modern enactments show that its weight on the prow compromised the ship's navigability. Romans lost almost two entire fleets to storms in
255 and in
249 BC, largely due to the instability caused by the device. These losses were probably the main reason for the abandonment of the
corvus in ship design by the end of the war. As Roman
Naval tactics improved and her crews became more experienced, the advantage of the
corvus in battle no longer outweighed the risk involved in using it. It is not mentioned in period sources after the battle of Ecnomus and apparently the
battle of the Aegates Islands that decided the first Punic war was won without them; however an evolution of the corvus, called
arpax, was used in the
battle of Naulochus.
*Goldsworthy, Adrian (2004).
The Fall of Carthage. Cassel Publications. ISBN 0304366420.
*
Polybius' description
