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Na osnovu podataka iz izvora, prvenstveno Lukana, autor pokušava izvršiti rekonstrukciju splavi na kojoj su stradali Cezarovi augzilijarci Opitergini, u bitci koja se dogodila kraj otoka Krka 49. g. pr. Kr., za građanskog rata između Cezara i Pompeja. Zaključuje da se radilo o vrlo velikom plovilu, najmanje 25 x 25 m, načinjenom od dva reda trupaca, okruženih drvenom buradi, pokretane veslačima koji su bili zaštićeni drvenim bunkerom. Vesla su bila ugrađena na neuobičajeni način, namijenjena za veslanje ispod površine. Splavi su izradili Bazilovi vojnici kako bi njima pokušali dostaviti snabdijevanje opkoljenom Gaju Antoniju. Nakon što im je to uspjelo, Antonije je pokušao splavima evakuirati dio ljudstva na kopno, što je rezultiralo stradavanjem Opitergina., At the beginning of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey in the summer of 49 BC, two Pompeian admirals, M. Octavius and L. Scribonius Libo, suddenly attacked the army of C. Antonius on the island of Curicta (Krk in the northern Adriatic) and laid it under siege. Antonius tried to evacuate a part of his troops using three large rafts. But Octavius saw through his intention and set an undersea trap for his ships of the sort used, as it seems, by Cilician pirates for capturing merchant ships. The raft carrying a cohort of Venetian Opitergini was captured, and they committed mass suicide rather than surrender to Caesar’s enemies. As a result, the event became famous among contemporaries and the poet Lucan dedicated a whole book of his epic Bellum Civile (or Pharsalia) to it. He describes the rafts as taciti … miracula cursus, the miracle of the silent navigation. This paper suggests a possible reconstruction of the Opitergine raft, based on an analysis of Lucan’s verses and other historical sources. The rafts were made by Basilus’ army in an attempt to secretly run the supplies to the Antonius’ soldiers through the enemy’s maritime blockade. The body of the rafts was made by cross-connecting two lines of logs, and a ring of empty wooden barrels was attached around it. The raft was oar-propelled with rowers located inside the wooden bunker for protection against enemy’s projectiles. The oars were fitted in a somewhat unusual way (unusual for oared ships): probably through the bottom of the raft and under the surrounding barrels. This way an oar’s blade could not be drawn out of the sea and all oar’s movements must have been made under the sea-surface: oars were not making the splashing sound in contact with the surface and rowing produced no sound. That’s why Lucanus attaches the expression taciti miracula cursus, the miracle of the silent navigation, to these craft. In the middle of each raft was a wooden tower, built probably not for defence purposes, but primarily for observation because early detection of an enemy’s man-of-war was the best chance for survival. Since the raft was boarded by just under 1000 (vix mille) soldiers from Opitergium, we could assume that it had to be over 60 tons deadweight and at least 25 x 25 metres large.