Context:During the First Punic War (264-241 BCE), Rome suffered catastrophic naval losses, losing hundreds of ships in severe storms, most notably a single storm in 255 BCE that sank around 384 of their 464 warships, plus transports, resulting in over 100,000 casualties, with total losses potentially reaching over 600 ships by the war's end, a testament to the dangers of early naval warfare and the unseaworthiness of their new designs like the corvus.
by Im_yor_boi
6 Comments
Auras Maximus
[deleted]
I firmly belief that some recently made shipbuilder at the time looked at the clouds wrecking the fleets and went, “You know, maybe this sea travel business is overrated, I’l stick to walking and the occasional carriage.”
High quality shtipost
And then Carthage *still lost this war.*
The corvus made sea battles into land battles, making Carthage’s fleets much easier to handle for Rome, but then the corvus also made Roman ships more liable to sink in storms.
And it did, in fact, do.