Battle of Mylae (260 BC): The Corvus and Rome's First Naval Win

The Battle of Mylae was fought in 260 BC off the north-eastern coast of Sicily, near the town of Mylae (modern Milazzo). A newly built Roman fleet under the consul Gaius Duilius defeated the experienced Carthaginian navy commanded by Hannibal Gisco. It was Rome’s first great naval victory, won with a new device, the corvus boarding bridge, during the First Punic War.

Background

In the first years of the war Rome had done well on land in Sicily, capturing Agrigentum in 261 BC. Carthage, however, ruled the sea. Its fleet could supply its Sicilian fortresses at will and raid the coasts of Italy.

In 260 BC Rome responded by building, according to Polybius, 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes, in about 60 days according to Pliny the Elder, using a captured Carthaginian warship as a model. The crews were largely inexperienced, and Roman shipwrights had never built warships on this scale. The first action was a humiliation: the consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio sailed with 17 ships to Lipara, was trapped in the harbour and captured.

The corvus

Knowing that Carthaginian crews were far better at manoeuvring and ramming, the Romans tried to turn sea battles into infantry fights. Polybius describes the corvus (“raven”) in detail. It was a gangway about four Roman feet (around 1.2 metres) wide and some 11 metres long, mounted on a pole at the bow so it could swing to either side.

When an enemy ship came close, the bridge was dropped. A heavy iron spike on its underside smashed into the enemy deck and pinned the two vessels together. Roman marines, among the best heavy infantry in the Mediterranean, then crossed two abreast and fought as they would on land.

The battle

Duilius, who had been commanding the land forces, took over the fleet after Scipio’s capture. He found the Carthaginians raiding the coast near Mylae, with a fleet Polybius puts at 130 ships. The size of the Roman fleet is not stated clearly; modern estimates are usually between about 100 and 145 ships.

The Carthaginians, confident of victory, attacked without forming a proper battle line. Hannibal Gisco’s flagship, a “seven” that had once belonged to Pyrrhus of Epirus, led the advance. As the leading ships closed in to ram, the corvi came down, locked them in place and let the Roman marines storm aboard. The first 30 Carthaginian ships, including the flagship, were captured; Hannibal escaped in a small boat.

The remaining Carthaginian ships tried to attack from the sides and stern, but the swivelling bridges could reach them there too. They broke off and fled. Polybius gives total Carthaginian losses as 50 ships; later sources such as Eutropius give 31 ships captured and 14 sunk, with thousands of men killed or taken prisoner.

Consequences

Mylae did not end Carthaginian sea power, but it proved that Rome could win at sea. Duilius went on to relieve Segesta, a Roman ally in western Sicily, which Carthaginian forces had besieged. Rome’s confidence grew, leading to the much larger fleet that fought at the Battle of Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC.

Hannibal Gisco survived the defeat but not much longer. In 258 BC, after another reverse off Sardinia, he was put to death by his own men, according to the ancient accounts.

Honours for Duilius

Duilius celebrated the first naval triumph in Roman history. A column decorated with the bronze rams (rostra) of captured ships was set up in the Forum, the Columna Rostrata. Its inscribed base survives in a restored version, probably made in the early imperial period with old-fashioned spellings, and is now in the Capitoline Museums. Cicero and Livy also record that Duilius was granted the unusual honour of being escorted home from dinner by a torch-bearer and a flute player.

Myths and facts

The corvus is sometimes described as a Roman invention that won the whole war. In fact Polybius mentions it only at Mylae and Ecnomus (260 and 256 BC), and the decisive final battle of the war, at the Aegates Islands in 241 BC, was won by lighter, better-handled ships without it. Its exact design is also uncertain, because Polybius is the only detailed source and modern reconstructions differ.

Timeline

• 261 BC: Romans capture Agrigentum but cannot challenge Carthage at sea.
• 260 BC: Rome builds a fleet of about 120 warships in some 60 days.
• 260 BC: Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio is captured with 17 ships at Lipara.
• 260 BC: Duilius defeats Hannibal Gisco off Mylae.
• 260 BC: Duilius celebrates Rome’s first naval triumph.
• 256 BC: Romans use the corvus again at Cape Ecnomus.

Why it matters

Mylae marks the moment Rome became a sea power. A city with little naval tradition beat the leading navy of the western Mediterranean by playing to its own strength, its infantry. That willingness to adapt, and to learn from its enemies, would serve Rome throughout its rise.