Military of Ancient Carthage - Carthaginian Navy

Carthaginian Navy

The navy of Carthage was the city's primary security, and it was the preeminent force patrolling the Mediterranean in Carthage's golden age. This was due to its central location, control of the pathway between Sicily and Tunisia, through which all ships must travel in order to cross the Mediterranean, and the skill with which its ships were designed and built.

Originally based on Tyrian designs with two or three levels of rowers that were perfected by generations of Phoenician seamanship, it also included quadriremes and quinqueremes, warships with four and five ranks of rowers on no more than three levels (see galley). These latter ships were much larger than their predecessors. Archaeological investigations confirm the presence of ship-sheds on the island in the circular harbour reported by ancient sources.

Polybius wrote in the sixth book of his History that the Carthaginians were, "more exercised in maritime affairs than any other people." Their navy included some 300 to 350 warships that continuously patrolled the expanse of the Mediterranean. The Romans, unable to defeat them through conventional maritime tactics, developed the Corvus, or the crow, a spiked boarding bridge that could be impaled onto an enemy ship so that the Romans could send over marines to capture or sink the Carthaginian vessels.