Mentioning the ancient Roman Empire easily brought to mind legions in red, marching through clouds of dust. But as a great power spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa, one that had turned the Mediterranean into its own inland sea, it naturally needed a navy. Their main warships at the time were triremes, and they were not built by the Romans themselves. The vast majority were constructed by craftsmen conscripted from allied cities on the Apennine Peninsula.
The bulbous bow, which reduced resistance when cutting through waves, had originally been intended as a ram. Since the Romans excelled at land warfare while naval combat was the specialty of the Carthaginians, Rome was initially at a disadvantage in the struggle for Sicily.
However, like the Mongols, the Romans were skilled at learning. What they learned from Greece was not merely mythology. A drawbridge resembling a sharp bird's beak was mounted on warships, and it was called the "Raven Boarding Bridge." It could be used to assault cities as a ladder, or lowered to smash into an enemy vessel with its sharp "beak." The Carthaginians of the time liked to use the rams on their prows to damage the flanks of enemy ships. They possessed nearly a thousand years of seafaring tradition and were more adept than the Romans at handling ships, but the "Raven Boarding Bridge" narrowed that gap.
Installing a "Raven Boarding Bridge" had both advantages and disadvantages. It changed a ship's center of gravity and severely disrupted its balance. In fact, a ship had a center of gravity, a center of buoyancy, and a metacenter, all of which changed according to the placement of its cargo. To keep a ship stable, ballast was used.
This had been distilled from experience. If one encountered an experienced first mate or captain, everyone could