Towards the top there was a ring, through which a rope was
fastened, by means of which they could raise and lower the engine at
pleasure. With this machine they attacked the enemy's vessels, sometimes on
their bow, and sometimes on their broadside. When they had grappled the
enemy with these iron spikes, if the ships happened to swing broadside to
broadside, then the Romans boarded them from all parts; but when they were
obliged to grapple them on the bow, they entered two and two, by the help
of this engine, the foremost defending the forepart, and those who followed
the flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of the
parapet."
From this description of the corvus, it is evident that it had two distinct
uses to serve: in the first place, to lay hold of and entangle the enemy's
ships; and, secondly, after it had accomplished this object, it served as a
means of entering the enemy's vessels, and also as a protection while the
boarding was taking place. With respect to the question, whether the
_harpagones_ or manus ferraeae; were the same with the _corvi_, it appears to
us that the former were of much older invention, as they certainly were
much more simple in their construction; and that, probably, the engineer
who invented the corvi, borrowed his idea of them from the harpagones, and
in fact incorporated the two machines in one engine.
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