INFLUENCE AT ROME 103 



pair of them, will beat off and mob the formidable 

 skua gull, the Iceland falcon, the sea or the golden 

 eagle itself. It will even engage in a not wholly 

 unequal combat, on the ground, with the long- 

 necked heron, one direct blow of whose spear-like 

 beak would kill him on the spot. 



Three striking compliments paid by the Romans, 

 the masters of the art of war, to the strength and 

 formidable nature of the raven's beak may be 

 mentioned here. 



First, it was nothing but the help, as the story 

 goes, of a raven which, perching on the helmet of 

 the Roman champion, Valerius, and striking with 

 beak and wings against the gigantic Gaul opposed 

 to him, secured the victory for Rome and gave to 

 Valerius, in consequence, his own name of Corvus, 

 which he bore as a name of honour ever afterwards. 



Secondly, it was nothing but the spike fixed at 

 the end of the mast and drawbridge invented by 

 Duillius, in the first Punic war, and called, from its 

 resemblance to a raven's beak, the Corvus or Korax, 

 which, when it fell on the deck of a Carthaginian 

 vessel, pinned it to itself in fatal embrace, and so, 

 changing the sea into a land battle, gave to Rome 

 her first naval victory over the masters of the sea. 



And, once more, the same terrible name of 



