A topic still the subject of study and discussion today concerns the naval progress achieved by the Roman Republic at the start of the First Punic War, allowing it to rival the powerful Carthaginian fleet. But how can this progress be explained?

The best-known theory concerns Rome's construction of a new fleet based on the model of a wrecked Carthaginian ship and, above all, the use of the corvus, a sort of drawbridge that was lowered over the enemy's hull to allow legionaries to board the vessel. However, this is an absolutely reductive and, in part, outdated explanation.

First of all, the Roman Republic must have already possessed a fleet at the outbreak of the conflict, with forces largely provided by its Italic allies, particularly the city of Taranto, which had been defeated in previous years. Obviously, this fleet was not comparable to that of Carthage, which is believed to have had around 300 ships at its disposal, staffed by admirals and trained sailors. Rome, after having managed to defeat the Punics and Syracusans separately on land in the first year of the conflict (264 BC), subsequently obtained an alliance with the latter, which—one might assume—provided not only the logistical support of Syracuse and the other allied Sicilian cities, but above all the employment of auxiliaries and engineers in both the naval and land sectors. The city of Arethusa, in fact, had already clashed with Carthage years earlier, when it was an ally and de facto tributary of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. The story of the Carthaginian ship that ran aground, reported by Polybius, may refer to a quinquereme, the construction of which was virtually unknown to both Rome and its Italian allies, but not, indeed, to Syracuse. This would explain, at least in part, the technological gap that Rome managed to bridge.

Let's now turn to the corvus. This instrument was perhaps recommended to the Romans in the city of Messina as a means of overcoming the fleet's limited speed and allowing for easier boarding. However, it was not always adopted as often thought: the naval defeat suffered by Rome at Drepana (Trapani) in 249 BC made it clear that the use of the corvus and the poor manoeuvrability of the quinqueremes were often cumbersome and counterproductive, especially in light of the manoeuvres performed by the new Punic quadriremes. Rome was able to remedy these limitations only after returning to the sea in 241 BC.