Transcript Gaius Duilius and the Corvus

Gaius Duilius and the Corvus
The Romans
Chapter 2 Case Study
How the corvus worked…
2. A System of ropes
& pulleys lowers
the corvus
4. The Roman landlubber army
fights on a flat surface and the
enemy ship is disabled
1. The corvus, a 4ft by 36 ft
bridge on a rotating axle
is fitted to the Roman ship
3. Sharp ‘beak’
penetrates enemy hull
Fighting
platform
Sharp beak
Aes grave:
‘heavy bronze’
Both the platform
and the sharp
beak are visible
Ramming prow
New shape for the
beak & platform
Coins minted by the
end of the 3rd C, BC
were smaller & more
Detailed, with
writing to denote a
mint: ‘ROMA’
Images courtesy of Andrew McCabe: http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/Corvus.html
This is an excellent website with scholarship of the development of the corvus in a number of sources.
Rostral column reconstruction
Prows
Anchors
‘MCR - colonna rostrata di C Duilio 1150130’ by Lalupa – . Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MCR_-_colonna_rostrata_di_C_Duilio_1150130.JPG#mediaviewer/File:MCR_-_colonna_rostrata_di_C_Duilio_1150130.JPG
G. Duilius’ dedication of booty at the Rostra, CIL 6.1300, c. 260 BC,
recarved in the early imperial period
Note the arcane spellings
Captom
Captum ‘Captured’
Navaled Navales ‘Ships’
Poplom populum ‘People’
The Republican Forum in the 5th Century BC
Senate house
Regia
Lapis Niger
Column of Duilius?
Temple of Castor
Temple of Saturn
Theatre of Marcellus
Proposed location of
Temple of Janus
Church of St Nicholas in Carcere
Labels added by author. ‘Forum Holitorium - Lancianu 1893-1901’. Licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forum_Holitorium_-_Lancianu_1893-1901.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Forum_Holitorium_-_Lancianu_1893-1901.jpg
One of ten ancient ship prows found by the Egadi Island
Survey Project (off the coast of Sicily)
Image from http://historyoftheancientworld.com/2013/04/rare-bronze-rams-from-the-first-punic-war-discovered/