Corvus

During the First Punic War, the corvus (Latin for "crow" or "raven") was a Roman naval boarding device used in sea battles against Carthage. This device was described as a bridge with a small parapet on both sides, measuring 1.2 m (4 ft) wide and 10.9 m (36 ft) long. The engine was most likely used in the ship's prow, where a pole and pulley system allowed the bridge to be raised and lowered. When the boarding bridge was lowered, a heavy spike shaped like a bird's beak on the underside of the device was designed to pierce and anchor into an enemy ship's deck. This provided a firm grip between the vessels as well as a path for Roman legionaries (who served as specialized naval infantry known as marinus) to cross onto and capture the enemy ship.

Rome was not a naval power and had little experience in sea combat in the third century BCE. The Roman Republic had never campaigned outside of the Italian Peninsula before the First Punic War began in 264 BCE. The Republic's military strength was in land-based warfare, and its main assets were the Roman soldiers' discipline and courage. The boarding bridge enabled the Romans to use their infantry advantage at sea, assisting them in overcoming the superior naval experience and skills of the Carthaginians. The Romans used boarding tactics to win several battles, including those at Mylae, Sulci, Tyndaris, and Ecnomus.

At the end of the First Punic War, it appears that Rome had abandoned the corvus. As Rome's ship crews gained experience, so did Roman naval tactics; as a result, the relative utility of using the corvus as a weapon may have diminished. After the Battle of Ecnomus, the device is not mentioned in period sources, and it appears that the Battle of the Aegates Islands decided the war in 241 BCE and was won without it. The Roman navy used a different type of device to facilitate boarding attacks by 36 BCE, at the Battle of Naulochus, a harpoon and winch system known as the harpax, or harpago.