Sure, space is cool and alluring, but for my money, the ocean right here on Earth is harboring just as many secrets.

For instance, a 2,300-year-old battering ram that the Roman war machine used in the way back, uncovered under the waves off the coast of Sicily.

In 241 BCE, the emerging Roman Empire battled Carthage in the area. Known as the Battle of the Aegates, it was one of the most decisive Mediterranean battles of the period.

The bronze battering ram found by archaeologists would have been used to destroy Carthaginian ships during that battle and probably others before it.

The Superintendence of the Sea of the Sicilian Region issued a statement about the relic, describing it as 262-feet long and found between the islands of Levanzo and Favignana.

It was recovered by the Hercules, a research vessel.

“Battering rams of this sort were deadly weapons of destruction which, when applied to the bow of warships, allowed enemy ships to be rammed and subsequently sunk.”

They are still working on cleaning and preserving the find so that we will be able to read any inscriptions or depictions on the surface.

The Battle of the Aegates marked the end of the first Punic War, and also the beginning of Rome’s spreading influence in the Mediterranean.

By the third Punic War, Carthage had lost too much and was dismantled, which allowed Rome to officially take the seat of the foremost power in the region.

The waters in the area have given up many ancient treasures.

Archaeologists doubt it will stop any time soon, and so they’ll be there, dredging up the deep, for the foreseeable future.

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