sea with seventeen ships, in order to secure at Messina reception and
security for the whole fleet; but his enterprise was unfortunate; for,
being deceived by false information, he entered the port of Lipara, where
he was blockaded by the enemy, and obliged to surrender. This partial loss,
however, was soon counterbalanced by a naval victory; for the remainder of
the Roman fleet, amounting to 103 sail, being encountered by a Carthaginian
fleet under Hannibal, who despising the Romans, had advanced to the contest
with only fifty galleys, succeeded in capturing or destroying the whole of
them.

In the mean time, the senate had appointed Duilius commander of the fleet;
and his first object was to survey it accurately, and, if possible, to
improve the construction or equipment of the vessels, if they appeared
defective, either for the purpose of sailing or fighting. It seemed to him,
on examining them, that they could not be easily and quickly worked during
an engagement, being much heavier and more unwieldy than those of the
Carthaginians. As this defect could not be removed, he tried whether it
could not be compensated; and an engineer in the fleet succeeded in this
important object, by inventing that machine which was afterwards called
_corvus_.

The immediate purpose which this machine was to serve is clearly explained
by all the ancient authors who mention it: its use was to stop the enemy's
ships as soon as the Roman vessels came up with them, and thus to give them
an opportunity of boarding them; but the construction and mode of operation
of these machines it is not easy to ascertain from the descriptions of
ancient authors. Polybius gives the following description of them: "They
erected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, about one
foot and a half in diameter, and about twelve feet long, on the top of
which a block or pully was fastened. Round this piece of timber a stage or