Page 1 - allegatooa_25351

Arms and armour

frroSamemSaicisly
Dario Calomino reports that the
discovery of bronze rostra in the
waters of Messina and Levanzo
provides new evidence of naval
Iwarfare at the time of the Punic Wars
2

n the north-eastern corner of 1. Map of Sicily general of Octavian’s army, gained a exhibition in Messina (3), before being
Sicily, along the Tyrrhenian showing Messina crucial victory over Sextus Pompey, the shipped to Palermo for conservation
coast of Messina (the ancient (north-eastern corner) son of Pompey Magnus, rival of Caesar and analysis. This is the most sensa-
Greek city of Zankles, founded and the Egadi Islands during the first Civil War. Sextus is also tional of an impressive series of rostra
by colonists from Chalcis in the 8th (off the north-western remembered by ancient authors for his finds that have enhanced the maritime
century BC), is a small seaside village corner). acts of piracy off Sicily against Rome. archaeological heritage of Sicily in the
last few years.
Acqualadroni, which means ‘the water 2. ’Ram fishing’: On 8 September 2008 an extraor-
of thieves’ (1). Its name recalls the time recovering the rostrum dinary discovery was made by a A rostrum was a heavy naval ram
when these waters were infested by from the sea. group of scuba-divers of the Messina positioned on the galley prow (cover-
Saracen pirates in the 17th-19th centu- Coastguard off Acqualadroni, about ing the intersection between the keel
ries but, even well before this in Greek 3. The Acqualadroni 350m from the coast at a depth of and the stem) and designed to crash
and Roman times, pirate galleys used ram, partially 7.20m: a bronze naval rostrum in per- into the hull of another ship at high
to sail across the Strait of Messina (the submerged in water, fect condition, about 2m long and speed in order to sink it. The struc-
3.2km channel dividing Sicily from on show at Palazzo weighing 300kg (2), was found on ture is normally composed of a vertical
Reggio Calabria, the most southern tip Zanca in Messina in the seabed. It was recovered by the part, fixed to the lower side of the stem,
of the Italian ‘boot’) and board mer- February 2009. Maritime State Antiquity Service, and of a horizontal underwater prolon-
the Soprintendenza Archeologica gation, the ramming head itself. The
chant ships. del Mare, guided by Professor name recalls the Latin motto ‘unguibus
Between Acqualadroni and Capo Sebastiano Tusa, in cooperation with et rostro’ (‘with claws and beak’; or ‘by
Rasocolmo (a few kilometres west), a the Guardia Costiera. any means’).
thousand-year-old passage of strate-
gic importance, one of the naval bat- After cleaning and desalinisa- It was known as a ‘beak’ because
tles that decided the fate of the Roman tion, it was displayed in a temporary of its function as offensive weapon in
Republic is supposed to have taken
place on 3 September 36 BC. The site, 3

known as Naulochus (in ancient Greek:
‘shelter for boats’) is where Agrippa,

1

32