The Roman’s used Marines in the first Punic War with Carthage; these men were called “milites classiarii” or soldiers of the fleet. While the Carthaginian used ramming tactics and were far superior seamen the Romans used a “corvus” (raven), it was a heavy gangway wide enough for two soldiers to attack abreast and was dropped between two ships, locking them together to allow the Romans to attack across the gangway and preventing the other ship from moving away during the attack. The Carthaginians were no match for this type warfare against the highly trained Roman legionnaires.

The use of fighting men as part of the regular complement of ships of war was common to the Phoenicians and to all the maritime states of Greece at least five centuries before the Common Era (CE). The Marines of that day had definite tactical missions: First, to fight in naval engagements defending the bulwarks of their own ships, and conducting boarding parties against the ships of the enemy; second, to capture and hold the land approaches of a harbor when necessary for the fleet to put into port in some strange country; and third, to enable the Fleet to strike a blow on land by means of a raiding party or small, compact offensive force.