Corvus (weapon)

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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.