caldrail Posted January 10, 2009 Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 Roman superiority at sea in the first punic war wasn't due to better crews or ships. The vessels were merely copies of carthaginian ones, and therefore as good as or no better. The crews had little experience of seamanship - the Romans were never great mariners - and were only recently trained. One real advantage the Romans did have was the corvus, a gangplank on the prow of the ship, which dropped when the Roman galley rammed its opponent and provided a way for the Romans to use their infantry to fight a 'land battle' at sea. The corvus did however tend to make a ship unwieldy at sea so the idea was dropped later on, the Romans having gathered enough experience of battles at sea to fight as other nations did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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