Ensis agit; stat quisque suæ de robore puppis
Pronus in adversos ictus.—— Lucan.
Thus translated by Rowe.
——Others by the tangling oars are held.
The seas are hid beneath the closing war,
Nor need they cast the javelins now from far;
With hardy strokes the combatants engage,
And with keen faulchions deal their deadly rage:
Man against man, and board by board, they lie.
“The famous machine called the Corvus, was framed after the following manner: They erected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, of about a foot and a half diameter, and about twelve foot long; on the top whereof they had a block or pulley. Round this piece of timber, they laid a stage or platform of boards, four foot broad, and about eighteen foot long, which was well framed, and fastened with iron. The entrance was long-ways, and it moved about the aforesaid upright piece of timber, as on a spindle, and could be hoisted up within six foot of the top: about this was a sort of a parapet, knee high, which was defended with upright bars of iron, sharpened at the end; towards the top whereof there was a ring: through this ring, fastening a rope, by the help of the pulley, they hoisted or lowered the engine at pleasure; and so with it attacked the enemy’s vessels, sometimes on their bow, and sometimes on their broad-side, as occasion best served. When they had grappled the enemy with those iron spikes, if they happen’d to swing broad-side to broad-side, then they entered from all parts; but in case they attacked them on the bow, they entered two and two by the help of this machine, the foremost defending the fore-part, and those that followed the flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of the parapet.