The 1st Punic War - Corvus, Rams and Drachma 

Pinned post for Q&A :)

I literally fire up Rome: Total War for the first time in years and you suddenly upload this, the stars have aligned 😂

"We lost 200 ships in a storm! It's okay, we'll build another fleet!" is one of the most 40k things ever said in a historical context.

Over 70 minutes of discussion about a very interesting subject felt like 25. Wow, great work, lads. Time truly is relative.

Brett knows his stuff. I'd very much like to see more ancient naval videos with the two of you.

In my opinion, that was the best collaboration you’ve done yet. Not only a very interesting subject with someone who complemented you in terms of voice and timing and sense of humor. A big thumbs up very well done to you both.

Yes! The Punic Wars! One of the most epic conflicts of all time.

It really happened… so glad you are covering classical era naval warfare :0

I have heard the story about the run-aground Carthaginian ships and the amazing Corvus so many times in so many retellings, including back in High School and in so many popular retellings on RU-vid (Invicta, Oversimplified, and more). It is nice to hear an actual historian talk about these things without just parroting everything Polybius said.

There's another school of interpretations for Pyrrhus's semi-random switch of objectives. That he was in need of securing loot for the army he took with him from Greece. Those people were either free Epirote tribesmen or/and veterans of the Diadochi wars embarked on expedition for loot. Hence some fighting in Italy, then Romans do not pay up so he looks for payoff in Sicily, Carthaginians also do not pay even if when he kicks them back to Lilybaeum, then he loots temple at Sicily (quite sacrilegious by standards of the day but he might be desperate), then he goes back to the peninsular allies again pressed by Rome, then there's quite unresolved fighting at Beneventum and then he gets the opportunity to claim kingship of Macedon (Ptolemaios Keraunos gets himself killed by Celts AND by the blood Pyrrhus was cousin to Alexander the Great and the last surviving person with actual ties to this royal bloodline) so now he rushes back to Greece to counter Antigonos (AND then looks the other way when his mercenaries loot royal tombs at Pella which again indicates money problems). The he gets himself killed by accident in Argos and the story ends. Pyrrhus was about fifty-something when he died and was considered the most successful general of his generation. It's unlikely he could win fighting both Western Mediterranean powers at the same time (and he would end having to do so if he was any more successful, especially after his threats of maybe one day visiting Carthaginians in Africa), but quite likely he was far less random than Romans were depicting him.

Nice change of pace. Good to see some ancient naval history, it's not as well covered as Age of Sail and later on.

Ah, my introduction to Ancient History, in middle high school, was with the Punic Wars. Great to hear a deeper and more nuanced discussion of the background and events.

Great show Drach! Loved Brett as a guest he paints a great picture of that first Punic war. Far better then my old college history professor ever did. Hope he’s a guest i the future again!

One of the most interesting things about this is a lot of how history stays the same. The historians having agendas and need to look at sources and how things are happening. The capturing of ships and common use of them against each other if they like the ability to use them. Foundational naval myths along with massive reogranisation of the state to pay for the navy. Consequences for failure being worse then rewards for success leading to often bad leadership options. People getting into big long costly wars without intending to. Peace deals leading to wars 20 ish years down the line. History doesnt repeat it rhymes and so on comes to mind here.

As an armchair historian I found this very informative and educational. Now I have a much better understanding of the Punic Wars. Thank you!

I stopped what I was doing and sat down to listen to this! I knew only a smattering about the Punic wars and found this FABULOUS!

regarding the corvus: maybe using grappling hooks turned out to work better. After all, when using plenty of grappling hooks, you're binding the two ships together. With a corvus, you get a linking rod, hence creating a triple pendulum consisting of two ships and a connecting corvus. Hence, I guess grappling turned out to be the better solution to the boarding problem.

As a student of classics, I always love when ancient naval warfare comes up on your channel. This was one of my favourite videos so far. It’d be interesting to have someone talk more about the evolution of Roman naval warfare, as it battles against other powers and itself, as well as Rome’s Atlantic operations

Remember not to throw the sacred chickens overboard and anger the Gods, we’re looking at you Claudius Pulcher

This might be one of the most informative and excellent works on the 1st Punic War on youtube. Oversimplified presented it in a funny and digestible way, but Bret brought a scholarship to it I can't help but be in awe of. Thank you Drach for bringing him into my sphere of knowlege!

No question. Been reading prof. Devereaux's blog for a while, and have also been watching this channel for quite a while. Enjoying the video. Thanks!

Several semesters of college in the 1980s were put to the torch after a single video lecture. Well done my friend, well done.

We definitely need a continuation. Bring forth the Second Punic war! Too bad there's nothing to say here about the Third one, as that Hannibal fellow preferred elephants and Alpine passes. I still believe he'd have made a decent Admiral.

Not everyday you hear Rome compared to Goku🤣👍. Edit:It's interesting that a large power having its ship made by an ally/colony is floated up again with the suggestion for South Korea to make frigates for the US Navy. Imperial Japan (1500's, I think) also supposedly learned to make ships from a Korean (when they were still a kingdom) ship that was beached in Japan.

I love learning from history professors who are passionate about their area of research

Awesome! That’s going to make my drive so much better this morning….

Fantastic, a history of Punic War naval warfare. ....and further more, Carthage must be destroyed

Great video, I’m a big fan of Brets realistic Lord of the Rings blog!

Thanks to the two of you for this amazing video, once again 👍

That was great! I would love to see another video with Bret, especially covering some of the things he mentioned but didn't get back around to, like head to head ramming. Great vid Drach!

Drach, being a good host/interviewer is definitely a skill, and you've done great here. I love that you aren't afraid to ask questions, but you also let him speak and don't rush it. Very good vid!

I like that you’ve been playing around with the intro music recently, this is the coolest sounding one yet!

Looking forward to a video about the Second Punic war! That was amazing, keep it up!

I realise this would be an odd collab, but I was half-hoping this would be Blue from OSP. Of course, this was fantastic, and Brent’s use of casual terminology makes it very approachable.

On the Corvus: Polybius may be channeling Thucydides on the difference between Athenian and Spartan naval expertise but as the Roman commanders were basically infantrymen put to sea they were probably less adept at naval tactics at first. So the idea of the Corvus as a device to get a short term advantage, which would not be needed once they’d gained more experience and expertise, seems a reasonable one.

First! The last time I was this early, the first Punic war was still ongoing. Heeeey, the guest is from my home State.

Thank you so much for doing this video together. I love Roman history and found this presentation so delightful. A brilliant overview with super interesting details. Please have him back for more! Best greetings, Peter

It was very informative for me to fill in my knowledge of the naval side of the conflict.

I'm glad you are branching out to the classical era and I hope you do one on world war greece, the pellopenesion wars!

This is a really great analysis and discussion with Bret. Thank you for the great video I enjoy your guest expert specials every time.

Wonderful ! Please come back with Punic, Round 2 and Round 3. I know they're not ship based, but this was riveting, and you are a historical sleuth with a right knack for asking the pertinent questions of a visiting expert, who, by the way, you have a judicious eye at choosing a knowledgeable and measured one.

history is wonderful. When told with clarity and whit. Thanks to you and your guest for a most enjoyable time!

This is an incredibly interesting interview! Thank you so much for setting it up!

Excellent episode. Thank you both.

Again, a video where I feel an urge to stand up and applaud at the end. Concentrated, concise and informative, simply excellent. Thank you!

Drac, thank you for the deep dive! Excellent and informative on every level.

This intro music was pretty decent, easily the best so far (not counting the original)

An excellent short, relatively, encapsulation of the first of the Carthage/Roman conflict. It does answer for some the seemingly lacking deeper thoughts of Carthage in regards to why they did not take a somewhat more aggressive tack on Rome itself.

Drach AND Rome?? Omg...This is the greatest video yet

Drach i don't know how you do it every time you have a guest they are absolutely brilliant grade A and always awesome and easy and enjoyable to listen to a great early naval history can't thank you enough for sharing your gift with us once again let me say thank you for doing what you do

I just discovered your channel two days ago and have been binge watching your videos since. You've got some great stuff mate.

Very enjoyable and knowlegable. Thanks both of you.

Wonderful gentlemen. Thank you both 💓

Thank you for a wonderfully detailed presentation of the First Punic War. This subject has fascinated me since I was in college some 40 years ago. Although I was studying to be an Engineer, I was fascinated by the school library. I remember reading discouragingly on the parse description of what took place. There was a lack of overall strategy, economics, and discussion of Naval tactics. This really brought everything together. Greatly appreciated and major kudos.

Great ! So informative and giving a much more concrete feel to these mysterious Carthaginians/Phoenicians. I was fascinated.

I keep rewatching this. Excellent conversation.

Extremely entertaining and informative performance by the guest! Hope to see more collaborations with this gentelman😊. Good job as always, Drach!

This was surprisingly awesome and engaging, thank you Drach, thank you Mr Deveraux.

Truly fascinating and informative, thank you👏

Great talk, thank you both for this!

The right kind of podcast

What a great video-explained so well! Thanks so much!

That was fascinating. Thank you both.

Excellent! Thank you both!!

Excellent stuff! I learned a boat-load from this discussion. Bravo!

Very interesting, thank you to the both of you.

Been a while since I was hooked on Roman history but this presentation got me hooked right back in. What an interesting time. Great presenter as well loved Bret's style.

@Drachinifel Are we also going to see more medieval/early-modern naval battles covered? I'd love to see one for Lepanto 1571, or perhaps the impact of the Sea Beggars in the Eighty Years War.

Great timing, I just watched Flashpoint History ' series on the Punic wars last night.Pretty cool, thanks Drach!

As I've been made to understand it, Rome had ships but they learned Carthage's mass production methods from the assembly markings on a shipwreck they found.

When you mention the series Rome, yes, the "town crier" is the most memorable MVP of the 2 seasons.

This video was ACES! I really hope you can get Bret back for more videos. He was very easy to listen to : )

So happy, good a rarely discussed topic in this detail, know as couple of months ago checked all over youtube

This intro music is a keeper. Almost as good as the one that you frustratingly cannot use anymore. Nice choice! Quality that is so rare on RU-vid. As a historical sociologist, I am always impressed.

This guest was fantastic thank you so much would love more

awesome, awesome, awesome.. very cool format! the people demand more

I love this video. Thank you both.

Keep up the great work bud!

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for the insights :)

I loved seeing prof. Devereaux on here and hope to see rather more of him. Thanks for the video!

I am in the middle of planning a trip to Sicily to learn more of its ancient history. This episode just eliminated a large portion of my ignorance on that subject. Thank you.

I am so pumped for you getting in ancient naval warfare.

Great Stuff! Drach questions and answers from another blogger I follow. :)

awesome chat, love this topic

Fantastic analysis: especially towards with the peer/near peer analysis comparing Rome and Carthage. Great stuff.

Very much enjoyed Brett talking, would love to hear him again!

Drach, this was excellent, thanks!

Yes, please have Bret return! I love the 10 questions format and you just seem to know how to get your guests talking! One topic I enjoyed from this video was the Corvus myth debunking. Roman wonder weapon that even occasionally aids to capsizing Roman warships!

Amazing guest! A great talk into the “other” Punic war 😂😂

Really enjoyed this, thank you!

I tend to dislike the interview type videos, but this one was one of my favorites!

Fantastic I'd love to see more on ancient naval conflicts

Wonderful discussion, thanks.

Great talk. I enjoyed it.

Superb video - thank you

Really super presentation ... this is like a Punic War version of the Battle of Midway story as revolutionized by Jon Parshall and Anthony Tully - clearing away all the unexamined (and endlessly repeated) myths of ancient (and modern) naval warfare!

That was fascinating! Thank-you

Magnificent, both of you.

This is a great discussion and the information which our guest brings is fabulous - there's plenty of new angles and material for me to get my teeth into. Great points about the corvus and general seaworthiness vs usable sea lanes. The one thing that strikes me about the whole cost-benefit analysis of maintaining vs losing whole fleets - and it's a *great* discussion point that Bret makes, which I'd not considered previously - is that it's fine to say that the hierarchy could afford to be ruthless about the loss of lower-class rowers, but the loss of a war galley would almost certainly involve the death of all those higher-status marines too! They had armour on; I don't know how many were good enough swimmers to deal with that conundrum and pretty sure Carley floats wouldn't be a thing for a while yet. But you lose men in battle and it's not like the Roman army was any different in terms of using up the easy-to-replace young men first and saving the older veterans for the last line - especially at this time. Still, quality of rowers is a thing to think about, and a good friend (who has rowing experience) and I discussed this issue of lower-class rowers in ancient galleys (not late medieval or Renaissance so much): His view being very much that a reasonable portion of the rowers would need to be very hIgh quality (strong, fit and experienced and themselves either professional or at least semi-), capable of 'leading' a team on long oars in two-bank 'fives', 'tens' and so on. They'd probably also fight, too, if the ship was boarded. So these were not going to be the very lowest status rowers. The crew could then be filled out with household slaves of higher-status crew as needed, and these could be less trained and just follow the lead of the better rowers. This is, of course, theory, but the 'team economics' of it make sense to a Navy man - and to me, too. I won't argue with it. Fabulous video - thanks to bret and thanks for talking about such a fascinating topic. These mysterious warships have a spell of their own.

Great video as always