LUCAN.

Thus translated by ROWE:

---Others by the tangling oars are held.

The seas are hid beneath the closing war,

Nor need they cast their javelins now from far;

With hardy strokes the combatants engage,

And with keen faulchions deal their deadly rage:

Man against man, and board by board, they lie.

" The famous machine called the Corvus, was framed after the following manner: They erected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, of about a foot and a half diameter, and about twelve feet long; on the top whereof they had a block or pulley. Round this piece of timber, they laid a stage or platform of boards, four feet broad, and about eighteen feet long, which was well framed, and fastened with iron. The entrance was long-ways, and it moved about the aforesaid upright piece of timber, as on a spindle, and could be hoisted up within six feet of the top: about this was a sort of a parapet, knee high, which was defended with upright bars of iron, sharpen'd at the end; towards the top whereof there was a ring: through this ring, fastening a rope, by the help of the pulley, they hoisted or lowered the engine at pleasure; and so with it attacked the enemy's vessels, sometimes on their bow, and sometimes on their broad-side, as occasion best served. When they had grappled the enemy with thole iron spikes, if they happen'd to swing broad-side to broad-side, then they entered from all parts; but in case they attacked them on the bow, they entered two and two by the help of this machine, the foremost defending the fore-part, and those that followed the flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of the parapet.

Reference Works