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Discovery in 1971 off the coast of Sicily of the remains of a Carthaginian ship from the middle of the 3rd century. BC e. allowed us to suggest how the ancient states could build tens and even hundreds of ships in a relatively short time (the Romans in 260 BC built their 100 quinqueremes in two months): on its body there are numerous carved or painted marks - letters Phoenician alphabet. These marks served as a guide during assembly. The production of individual standard hull parts, obviously, was put on stream. Finished sections could only be delivered to the shipyard and assembled; special adjustment, with their standard sizes, they did not require. Such a "conveyor" method eliminated the need to manually adjust each board, and reduced the number of stocks occupied at the same time. It is noteworthy that among the things lifted from the Phoenician ship, in addition to ceramics, remnants of rigging and ballast stones, there were vessels with hashish leaves (cannabis sativa) - it was probably given to rowers before the battle. Fragments of a ram, which probably belonged to another ship, were found near the remains of the ship. The question of whether the found vessel was a military vessel, or whether it was a high-speed military transport that had much in common with a battle galley, remains open.

Slaves and freedmen and citizens of the lower classes were appointed to work at the oars; their training was begun even before the ships were ready, for which the appropriate scaffolds were built; people were assigned to courts and places on the ship, and they began to be taught how to move the oars to the beat; as soon as the ships were launched, the training continued on the water. Legionnaires were put on board as soldiers.

The Romans surpassed the Carthaginians in the quality of their "marines", but in all other respects they were significantly inferior to them: their ships were much heavier and slower, partly due to the fact that they were inferior to the Carthaginian ones in their design, partly because they were built from a completely damp forest; the Romans subsequently paid serious attention to this shortcoming. Among the Carthaginians, rowers were slaves who spent their whole lives in this work and acquired in it such skill and such endurance that it was impossible to compare with them; at any rate, the Roman slaves and freedmen who performed this work were far inferior to them in this respect.

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The experience of the old navigators was useful to the Carthaginians, both in terms of evolution and maneuvers, and in terms of navigation; they had few cases of applying their practice in battle, since for a long time they had not been opposed by a strong enemy experienced in naval warfare. However, they did not have an innate talent for warfare, especially on a large scale. Tactical skills existed among them, apparently, only in the most general terms. Be that as it may, seafaring experience was undoubtedly of great benefit to them, and the lack of this experience among the Romans caused the great losses that they suffered. But in a tactical sense, they managed to make up for the lack of naval experience with their clear view of the matter and practical acumen.

Success in ramming, which in those days was in general use and decided the fate of battles, was due to the speed of the ships, their agility and the skill of the commander (of course, with the appropriate high command); all these conditions were in favor of the Carthaginians.

Therefore, the Romans decided to use the only advantage they had over the Carthaginians - their legionnaires, the best soldiers in the world. At sea, it could only be used in a boarding battle, and in order to be able, contrary to the generally accepted way of fighting, to proceed to such a battle, they equipped their ships with a device completely unknown until then - boarding bridges. These footbridges bore the strange name of "ravens" (corvi); however, the Romans, apparently, also called them "iron hand" (manus ferrata).

Concerning the construction of these bridges, which Polybius describes rather vaguely, there are disagreements; the most probable is the following: on the bow of the ship, at the same distance from the stem and both sides, there was a vertical column 23 centimeters thick, which protruded 7.75 meters above the deck and in its upper part was equipped with a block through which a thick rope was passed ; the column from below rested against the keel and could rotate around a vertical axis. The boarding bridges themselves consisted of an 11-meter platform, 1.2 meters wide, on which the crossbars were stuffed, and on both sides a wall or railing was arranged to the height of the knees; the inner end of the platform was attached at a height of one step from the deck to a vertical post with a through bolt, on which it could rotate, as if on a hinge; at the height of the block, the rope mentioned above was attached to the platform, with the help of which the platform could be raised and lowered, like a drawbridge. In order to be able to set the platform almost vertically, and also in order to fit snugly against the post, a groove of 32/3 meters in length was made in it; nevertheless, the platform, even when fully raised, retained a somewhat inclined position, so that when the rope was released, it fell of itself; a heavy iron appendage was attached to the outer (upper) end of the platform, which had a wide and thick shape and a ring for tying in its upper part, and a sharp and slightly curved one in the lower part; in a section, this appendage had some resemblance to a crow's beak, which probably gave rise to the name of the whole device "crow".

Before meeting with the enemy, this platform remained raised, and then turned towards the enemy ship: when it collided with it or approached such a distance that the platform could be thrown onto the enemy deck, the rope fell and the platform fell; the "crow's beak" pierced the deck, or at least dug into it so deeply that, thanks to its twisted shape, it held firmly in it. At the same time, two soldiers were rushing across this bridge; the first two held the shields in front of them, and the next pairs put them on the side walls: then hand-to-hand combat began on the enemy ship, in which the Romans had no equal. Who owned the idea of these bridges is unknown, but the success of this invention is associated with the name of Gaius Duilius.

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According to legend, the decisive battle was preceded by two preliminary skirmishes. The two consuls seem to have cast lots as to which of them should command the fleet and which should command the troops stationed in Sicily; the first went to Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, the second to Gaius Duilius. Scipio did not want to wait until the main forces of the fleet were ready, and with 17 ships (which were not equipped with boarding bridges) set off along the Italian coast and arrived safely in Messana; the Carthaginian admiral Hannibal, who was standing with the fleet in Panormus, spread a false rumor that the inhabitants of Lipara were only waiting for the arrival of Scipio in order to take the side of Rome; this rumor lured Scipio to Lipara, where the next morning he was attacked by a superior Carthaginian squadron and captured him with the whole detachment; for this Scipio received the nickname "donkey" (asina).

After this, Hannibal, with 50 ships, as can be assumed, moved towards the main body of the Roman fleet, which was moving along the Italian coast, but he did not take any precautions; as a result of this, as well as an unfortunate accident, the Carthaginian squadron, apparently at anchor and, in any case, not ready for battle, was taken by surprise by the Roman fleet approaching in battle formation and lost several ships.

Be that as it may, the main body of the Roman fleet arrived safely at Messana. Here Gaius Duilius, having transferred command of the troops to the tribunes, took over the main command of the fleet (it is possible that until then he had never set foot on a ship in his life) and, with the firm determination characteristic of Roman military leaders, moved with 130 ships along the northern coast of the island, to the west , towards Panormus, towards his mighty naval rival. For their part, the Carthaginians were already moving towards him; the collision occurred at Cape Mile (Milazzo); the Carthaginian fleet consisted of 120-130 ships and consisted almost exclusively of penthers, and the flagship was the same heptera (septireme) that the Carthaginians captured from Pyrrhus.

The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by the same Hannibal, whose carelessness shortly before led to the loss of a significant number of ships; this lesson, however, did not make him wiser; the Carthaginians, who for centuries had almost completely dominated the sea and had not met an equal enemy for a long time, considered themselves completely safe; this led them to excessive self-confidence and to the neglect of even the simplest tactical rules: they believed that their very approach should frighten and put the enemy to flight; such neglect of the enemy is almost always punished, of which the present case is a clear example.

And this time Hannibal did not send forward scouts; his fleet was in disorder; when the Romans appeared, he, with about 30 ships, was far ahead of the main forces, and instead of letting the latter approach or at least line up the ships that were with him, he rushed at the enemy with reckless courage.

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We have repeatedly expressed the opinion that courage is the most important condition in war, especially in naval warfare; courage is a necessary element of the offensive and of every great success; where there is no such courage, one must be able to arouse it. With soldiers and junior officers, courage can never be excessive, since it is directed and kept within certain limits by senior commanders; even reckless daring, that is, that which acts without proper deliberation, deserves indulgence. But with regard to an independent military commander, the situation is completely different: the higher he is placed and the larger the forces entrusted to him, the less he has the right to neglect the careful weighing of all the circumstances at hand.

Duilius walked towards Hannibal with a calm resolution, the result of his courage; and, indeed, it was impossible not to recognize the great courage of Duilius, who, with the newly created fleet, went into battle with the enemy, for whom the sea was his native, unquestioned element. However, Duilius did so in a sense of his strength, counting on the composure and strict discipline of his commanders and on the skill of his warriors, who, thanks to new boarding bridges, could fight as they used to do on land. He carefully weighed his chances beforehand against an enemy skilled in seamanship, but presumptuous and having bad commanders. The Carthaginians noticed clumsy "ravens" on the Roman ships approaching them in close formation (in which one is unknown). They, although they were surprised, did not take any measures against them, but limited themselves to ridicule. However, when the ships collided nose to nose, the Romans immediately put them into motion. From whatever side the Carthaginians attacked - stem against stem or passing close along the side of the enemy in order to break his oars - heavy boarding bridges fell onto their deck and pierced it with a sharp hook; along these bridges, numerous legionnaires immediately rushed to their ships, held by the "raven", protected from projectiles by walls, shields and helmets.

The Carthaginians were completely amazed by this unexpected method of attack; in hand-to-hand combat, their soldiers were far inferior to the Romans, who, moreover, greatly outnumbered them; they were unable to resist for a long time, and soon all 30 ships with which Hannibal made the first attack were captured, including the flagship. The admiral barely managed to escape on a boat to his main forces.

However, he still did not want to admit the battle was lost. Since the attack from the bow was unsuccessful, he ordered his ships, which surpassed the enemy in speed and agility, to surround the Romans in order to attack them from the sides or from the stern; the Romans, however, were so skillful that they managed to parry this technique, and the attacker everywhere met the menacing "crow", which could turn in both directions by about 300 degrees. Having suffered significant losses, Hannibal, no longer having any hope of success, stopped the battle and began to retreat, which Duilius with his slow ships could not prevent.

The Carthaginians lost at least 50 ships, 3,000 killed and 7,000 captured; Roman losses were negligible. Thus, in the very first battle, Duilius won a complete brilliant victory, and one should not lose sight of the fact that chance also favored him (not counting the fact that Hannibal himself helped him, who, having fast ships, did not evade battle with unfavorable for him conditions), since the weather was good and the sea was calm.

As a result of the victory at Mila, Duilius was able to strengthen his army with crews from ships, free Aegesta from the siege, which was in serious danger, and again push the Carthaginians back to their fortified harbors; however, much more important than these practical results was the moral effect of his victory. The world's first maritime power, a seafaring people, who in those days occupied approximately the same place as in the 19th century. England, the fleet that reigned on all the seas and far surpassed all other fleets, possessed fortified harbors at all significant points, colonies scattered throughout the then known world, supported the most extensive maritime trade and therefore possessed enormous wealth, secured from attack from land - with In the first clash, he was defeated in his own element by an enemy who until then had been completely unknown at sea and who had a much weaker fleet. Just as the prestige of the Athenian fleet was undermined by four successive battles in the bay of Syracuse, so the naval power of Carthage was overturned by one blow.

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пятница, 15 июля 2022 г.

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пятница, 15 июля 2022 г.