Roman heavy hulls made ramming and boarding complementary

Roman warships were traditionally built more heavily than those of many Carthaginian and Hellenistic opponents. A more solid hull could better survive a ram and deliver a heavier impact of its own, but extra weight reduced manoeuvrability. The corvus and other boarding methods made sense within this preference for closing with an enemy rather than relying only on elegant ramming attacks. The video then returns to the uncertainty of oar arrangements, especially in unusually large galleys whose reported crews are difficult to reconcile with practical motion and hull length. These details explain the strengths of Antony's large ships and the architectural limits that made them vulnerable to Agrippa's more agile force.