1-Acest articol este copiat !
2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1!
Scipio the Donkey
With the First Punic War grinding to a stalemate on Sicily following the early Roman victory, it became clear that the republic would need to take to the waves. Carthage had long been a maritime power, dominating the western Mediterranean for centuries with its colonies in Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and Iberia. The senior Consul for 260 BC Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio thus took to the seas with Rome’s first 17 ships.
The standard ship used throughout the war was the quinquereme, meaning “five oared”, as opposed to the standard Greek three-oared trireme. The quinquereme was around 150 ft long, 16 ft wide at water level, and had its deck standing 10 ft above the waterline. It displaced around 100 tonnes, and could maintain speed of around seven knots (eight mph). They were built protected, with a closed hull and full deck so legionaries and siege equipment could be disembarked. A separate “oar box” was attached to the deck to carry the rowers. These strengthened the hull, increased capacity, and improved conditions for the rowers. Contrary to the popular misconception, rowers at this time were a professional class – it was not until he Medieval era when masses of enslaved rowers would be chained to their benches in battles such as Lepanto. Each warship was a ram, with a triple set of 2 ft wide blades weighing around 270kg (600lb) at the waterline, which could be used to punch through other ships and “hole” them. The larger ships had become slower and had hulls tougher to puncture, and thus the century before the Punic War had seen ramming become less common, being replaced by boarding. The boarding party would be a group of marines, as the rowers themselves would not ostensibly fight (they may offer a desperate last stand if they own marines were overcome, though they would not trained nor armed to fight). Another method of victory was to quickly row up alongside and ship ours before the enemy ship. The result clash would not only shear the oars off the enemy ship, but also kill half of their rowers who would be crushed by their oars against the back of their benches. A typical quinquereme carried 280 oarsmen, 20 deck crew, and 40 marines, though the latter could be increased to 120 if battle was imminent.
Reverse engineered from Carthaginian shipwrecks, the novice Roman ships were heavier than their Carthaginian counterparts, and thus slower and less manoeuvrable. This, coupled with lack of seafaring experience, put the Romans at an immediate disadvantage. Getting the oarsmen to row in unison to the tune of the lyre (rather than the drum, a common misconception) was a complicated task, let alone getting them to perform complicated battle manoeuvres and change speeds. What would be to their advantage was Rome’s adaptability.
While Scipio was at the Strait of Messina, he heard that the Carthaginian garrison at Lipara – the main port of the Lipari Islands – was willing to defect to Rome. He could not resist the temptation of seizing this constant threat to Roman communications, especially as it was proffered without a fight – though this may have been a Carthaginian ruse. The Romans entered Lipara harbour, and news soon reached Hannibal Gisco, now at Panormus (Palermo) around 60 miles away. He sent 20 ships under the aristocrat Boódes to the town, who arrived at night to trap the Romans. The Battle of Lipari Islands was no battle at all, as Scipio’s inexperienced crews offered little resistance and were swiftly outfought by the Carthaginian maritime veterans. Scipio himself was taken prisoner, and all of the Roman ships were captured having taken minimal damage. While little more than a skirmish, it was the first naval encounter of the First Punic War.
Scipio was released under ransom, and his easy defeat earnt him to ignominious cognomen “Asina”, Latin for donkey. The Romans had learnt a key lesson from the encounter though – that they could not defeat Carthage at sea, that their crews were no match for the well drilled manoeuvres of their maritime foes. They could not evade, ram, or shear oars as the Carthaginians could. However, they could defeat them on land. So an obvious question arose – how could a sea battle be turned into a land battle? The answer was brilliant in its Roman simplicity – the “corvus”, or crow. The corvus was a raised bridge was a large metal spike in the bottom, on a rotating axel which could be swung round and dropped, and thus when a Roman ship pulled alongside a Carthaginian one, they could drop the corvus to both enable easy boarding and pin the other ship in place. Previously boarding was done ad hoc by securing a ship with ropes – which the enemy could cut lose – and jumping over the side, which was both dangerous (and those who landed betwixt the ships would be crushed), but also allowed the slowly-arriving attackers to be overwhelmed in turn. The corvus allowed the Romans to pile men on quickly and (relatively!) safely, thus using the superiority of their legionaries to overwhelm, and capture, the Carthaginian ships.
Scipio’s co-Consul Dullius brought the rest of the Roman fleet – around 103 ships – to bear against the fleet of 130 ships under Hannibal later in the year. The new corvus enabled the Romans to capture the first 30 Carthaginian ships they came to grips with at the Battle of Mylae, and the remaining Carthaginians attempted to manoeuvre behind them to avoid the dreadful device. The pivoting of the covus allowed the Romans to still capture most Carthaginian ships that attacked, and after 20 more fell, Hannibal retreated. Dullisu chose not to press his advantage, and thus Hannibal was able to escape with his remaining 80 ships – now just half the size of the Roman fleet. A rostrum found off Acqualadroni in 2008 is likely from a Carthaginian fleet from this battle.
Dullius returned to Rome to see a victory column erected in his honour, the remnants of this which now stand in the Capitoline Museum, stating that he captured 31 ships, sunk 13, and took booty worth 2.1 million sesterces. He received Rome’s first naval triumph, and the first triumph to include native Carthaginians. He built a Temple of Janus in the Forum Holitorium, some of which is still visible in the walls of the church of San Nicola in Carcere, and went on to stand as Censor two years later. Victory at Mylae emboldened the Romans to pursue Hannibal to Sardinia, where he rallied the Carthaginians to prove their maritime prowess and reverse the Roman victory.
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