Rome Won with a Crow: The Key to the First Punic War
Rome turned sea battles into land battles with a boarding bridge called the corvus, cancelling Carthage's advantage in seamanship; but Carthage brought in a Spartan to rebuild its army and captured a Roman consul in return.
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This was not a war between two equal powers
The host opens by calling it a clash of ‘the two great powers of the western Mediterranean’, and Eve MacDonald corrects him on the spot: at the war's outbreak Carthage was not necessarily a military power of that rank. Carthage had money, controlled the sea routes, and had centuries of alliances in western Sicily, but it had no strong standing army — it relied on allies and mercenaries. What actually made Carthage a power able to fight Rome on equal terms was this war itself. So the story Roman sources tell over and over, of ‘Roman adaptability’, is only half the story; the other half is Carthaginian resilience and adaptability, without which there is no explaining why this war lasted more than twenty years.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldMercenaries at Messana dragged both powers in
The trigger was not the ambition of Rome or Carthage but a band of Campanian mercenaries called the Mamertines. They had seized Messana, and after being defeated by Hiero II, king of Syracuse, they split in two: one faction asked Carthage for help, the other asked Rome. Carthage acted first from its base in the Lipari Islands, and Rome followed — not with a small intervention but a full invasion with two consular armies. Eve points out that the Roman sources' claim of an ‘accidental empire’ is highly suspect, because the Romans showed up at Messana at the scale of an invading force. Polybius treats Rome's first crossing of the sea into Sicily as the starting point of Roman imperial expansion.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldThe corvus turned sea battles into land battles
Carthage was a naval power: its oarsmen were skilled and its ships built fast and well, so much so that the Romans built their own warships to Carthaginian standards. But the Romans added one thing: the corvus, meaning ‘raven’, a boarding bridge that could hook an enemy ship. Once hooked, the Carthaginian ship could not move, and Roman marines simply crossed over and fought a land battle. At Mylae the Carthaginians clearly did not expect this, and took heavy losses. Eve also cautions that the details of the corvus leave many unanswerable questions in the sources, but ancient historians all treat it as decisive. At Cape Ecnomus the corvus is again credited as the chief factor, and Rome thereby opened the sea route for its invasion of Africa.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldCarthage hired a Spartan to rebuild its army
After Rome landed in Africa and kept advancing, it looked as though Carthage was finished. Carthage's response was to recruit a new army in the eastern Mediterranean and to bring in a Spartan commander, Xanthippus. He reorganised the Carthaginian army and reworked how the war elephants were used. Eve notes in particular that the Carthaginians had not used elephants before; it was only after seeing the Indian elephants Pyrrhus brought that they realised they had a smaller African elephant of their own they could use. Xanthippus's reforms worked: the Roman army was destroyed and the consul Regulus was captured. This was Rome's first devastating defeat of the war, and it became a key event in later Roman memory defining the relationship between Rome and Carthage.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldThe captured consul went home to argue against peace
Carthage sent the captured consul Regulus back to Rome to negotiate peace. In the Senate Regulus said not to surrender, that Carthage was there for the taking. By agreement, if peace failed he had to return to Carthage and remain a prisoner. He went back, and died in captivity. Eve says the various horrific versions of how he died are not actually mentioned in the credible sources, so it is hard to judge how much is later embellishment; but what is certain is that he died a prisoner in Carthage, peace was refused, and Rome fought on. This passage is a textbook moment of Roman self-congratulatory rhetoric.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldThe sacred chickens wouldn't eat, and Rome's fleet was finished
In 249 BC the Roman consul Tiberius Claudius Pulcher took his fleet to fight Carthage off Drepana. By Roman ritual, the sacred chickens aboard his ship had to eat for the battle to proceed; if they did not, it was a bad omen. The chickens would not eat, so he threw them into the sea, saying that if they would not eat, then let them drink. Roman sources record this as the gravest act of sacrilege, and the Roman fleet was then defeated at Drepana. Eve says that once Roman sources start stressing a commander's arrogance and contempt for tradition, it usually means something bad happened. This defeat kept Rome from sending out a fleet for eight years.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldHannibal's father tied Rome down with guerrilla war
After Drepana Rome vanished from the sea, and Carthage gained freedom of action on the western coast. In 247 BC Carthage sent a new commander, Hamilcar Barca — Hannibal's father. He brought a force Polybius calls the Mix-Hellenes, made up of soldiers of Greek, Libyan and Phoenician descent from North Africa, and waged guerrilla war on Rome, occupying the high ground above Drepana and Panormus with considerable success. Eve says this was the first time in the war that Carthage's army fought Rome this well. He also seized the temple complex at Eryx, sacred to the goddess the Carthaginians called Astarte, and both sides fought fiercely for this holy site.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldThe war's ramming beaks still lie on the seabed
The Battle of the Aegates Islands in 241 BC was the last battle. The Roman fleet hid behind the islands and ambushed a Carthaginian fleet heavy with supplies bound for Hamilcar. Eve says that if you climb Eryx today, on a clear day you can see the Aegates Islands perfectly, and Hamilcar very likely watched this disaster unfold from land. More remarkably, the site of this sea battle has been preserved underwater: over the past twenty years underwater archaeologists have found large bronze ramming beaks on the seabed near the island of Levanzo, some inscribed with the names of Roman consuls, some bearing Punic inscriptions and carvings, along with Monte Fortino helmets and amphorae.
— Dr. Eve MacDonaldIn their own words · checked verbatim
What a battlefield we are leaving for the Romans and Carthaginians to fight over.
Tristan Hughes0:00
To me, it's a miracle that the Carthaginians managed to hold on to anything in Sicily for as long as they did.
Dr. Eve MacDonald20:50
But they probably aren't that force when this war starts.
Dr. Eve MacDonald21:50
the corvus means crow and it's like a boarding bridge so the romans have taken carthaginian standardized ships we think and added these bridges in which they can grapple onto the enemy ships and then they can have their marines cross over and fight more in in in kind of land battle style
Dr. Eve MacDonald29:16
don't surrender. These Carthaginians are ripe for the taking. We can't surrender.
Dr. Eve MacDonald44:16
well if they won't eat maybe they'll drink and he throws them into the sea
Dr. Eve MacDonald48:41
Carthage can't hold Sicily if they are defeated in a naval battle.
Dr. Eve MacDonald54:11
quite a moment when you just see the prowls of those ships emerge from behind the island and surprise the Carthaginian fleet
Tristan Hughes56:18
Figures
| Ships at the Battle of Mylae | more than 100 per side | 30:23 |
| Ships at the Battle of Cape Ecnomus | about 350 per side | 32:27 |
| Year of the Battle of Drepana | 249 BC | 46:27 |
| Years Rome stopped sending out a fleet after Drepana | 8 years | 49:41 |
| Year Hamilcar Barca took command | 247 BC | 46:27 |
| Year of the Battle of the Aegates Islands | 241 BC | 55:17 |
| Years of indemnity under the Treaty of Lutatius | 20 years | 1:00:36 |
Glossary
- corvus
- A boarding bridge fitted to Roman warships that could hook an enemy vessel so marines could cross over and fight.
- Mamertines
- Campanian mercenaries who seized Messana, named after their worship of the war god Mamers.
- Mix-Hellenes
- Polybius's term for the soldiers of Greek, Libyan and Phoenician descent from North Africa under Hamilcar.
- Monte Fortino
- A Celtic-style helmet used by both Romans and Carthaginians, recovered from the Aegates battle site.
How to listen
Listeners interested in the Roman Republic, Carthage or ancient naval warfare; anyone who wants the concrete military mechanics of things like the corvus, and how underwater archaeology reconstructs a sea battle.
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