Pirates: A History

by Travers, Tim

  Now, before returning later to this golden age of piracy, the story of piracy really begins with the ancient world.

  2

  From Classical Piracy to the Medieval Mediterranean

  Pirates are the eternal outsiders, riding the shifting boundary between honesty and crime at sea. The line between piracy and legal maritime activity was a very fine one – for example, in the ancient period the distinction between piracy and customary raiding did not really exist. As an example, what is the reader to make of the casual exploit in Homer’s Odyssey, perhaps composed somewhere around the eigth century bc, when the hero sailed:

  …to the Cicones, to Ismaros [on the Thracian coast]; there I sacked a city and slew the men, and taking from the city their wives and many possessions we divided them, that no man for me might depart deprived of an equal share. Then, indeed I ordered that we should fly with nimble foot…1

  Perhaps Homer was thinking back to the violent twelfth century bc when raiders like Homer’s hero sacked cities, and went after treasure and women. The whole purpose was spoil, ‘Silver, gold, bronze, horses, cattle and sheep, women, above all, treasure and women.’2 At a lower level of raiding, there must also have been many freebooter groups, often composed of just three or four men in small boats, scrounging what they could get. Later on, much of the raiding that took place in coastal regions of the Mediterranean was a by product of the wars between the Greeks and the Persians, between Athens and Sparta, and other local wars. Thus one Polycrates became a tyrant and pirate in the sixth century BC. He was an ally of the Egyptian king, Amasis, and according to the historian Herodotus, captured the island of Samos between about 535 to 532BC Polycrates raided rather successfully:

  …wherever he decided to strike in a campaign, everything went well for him. He got himself one hundred penteconters [a 50 oared ship] and a thousand archers, and he harried and plundered every state without distinction … He captured a great number of the islands and many of the towns on the mainland [of Greece]. Among his conquests were the Lesbians … he beat them in a sea battle, and it was they who in chains dug the whole of the trench around the fortification in Samos.3

  Even so, it is hard to determine if Polycrates can strictly be called a pirate because of his large scale operations and alliance with Egypt. Also it seems that the concept of piracy did not really begin to emerge until 478BC, during the creation of the Delian League, a group of city states and Greek islands led by Athens, which was formed to protect against the Persians, act against pirates, and restore order to the Aegean region after the Persian invasion of 480BC.

  No doubt it was always difficult to differentiate between piracy and authorized raiding during the long periods of warfare in the ancient world. During the Peloponnesian War of 431–404BC much of what may seem to be piracy was really mercenary privateering on behalf of one side or another. It also appears that the Greek word ‘peirates’, meaning one who assaults, only stems from around the third century BC.4 On the other hand, Athens tried to control piracy during the fourth century bc, and Athenians evidently understood who was a pirate and who was not. Similarly, during the short rule of Alexander the Great (336-323BC), he clearly differentiated between pirates and legitimate maritime activity, and attempted to rid his empire of pirates. Thus Alexander told his admirals Hegelochus and Amphoterus in 331BC to rid the seas of pirate fleets, which had flourished while Alexander was locked in his struggle with the Persian king Darius. Particular mention was made of Crete, which supported piracy and ran a large slave market.5 Another reference to pirates during Alexander’s reign occurs when five pirate galleys, which had allied themselves with Persian forces in the eastern Mediterranean, entered the harbour of Chios in 331BC under the mistaken impression that Chios was under the control of the Persians. However, Chios was actually in Macedonian hands, and the surprised pirate crews were ‘killed then and there’. Clearly, Alexander himself saw a clear distinction between pirates and other groups.6

  Following the death of Alexander in 323BC, the wars of his Successors spawned pirates, privateers and mercenaries in large numbers. Notable among this group were the pirates who assisted Antigonus the one-eyed, and his son Demetrius, in their siege of Rhodes in 305-304BC. The historian Diodorus records that pirates, merchants and traders all provided cargo and transport ships for Demetrius. Even though Diodorus remarks that these merchants and traders gathered around Demetrius in order to enrich themselves from the misfortunes of others, Diodorus still distinguishes between the pirates and these other potential plunderers of Rhodes. The same distinction between pirates and others is made by Diodorus when he relates that Demetrius sent out pirates and soldiers to attack Rhodes by sea and by land. Subsequently, the maritime defenders of Rhodes sailed out and defeated a fleet of Demetrius’ ships, which included some pirate ships, commanded by the pirate Timocles. Diodorus notes that Timocles was the chief pirate, and his ships consisted of three ‘deckless ships’, presumably meaning fast galleys with just one bank of oars. Once again, Diodorus makes a clear distinction between pirates and Demetrius’ other ships. In this case, despite the efforts of Demetrius and Antigonus, the siege of Rhodes failed. This father and son adopted the use of extremely large siege engines, requiring thousands of men to work them, because they mistakenly believed that bigger is better. One of these engines was a truly enormous siege tower, nine stories high, inside which were 3,400 soldiers. But one night, the Rhodians fired bolts that dislodged some of the iron cladding that protected the wood beneath, and then followed up with fire arrows that set the tower on fire. Consequently, the tower had to be withdrawn. The siege was eventually abandoned, and a treaty was signed. Following this, the island of Rhodes, on behalf of all the Greeks, took the lead in attacking the pirates of the Mediterranean, and, according to Diodorus, purged ‘the seas of these evil doers…’7

  Romans and Pirates

  Despite this effort by Rhodes, by the time the Romans emerged as a Mediterranean power, pirate raids were still a constant problem. These pirates were difficult to deal with because Rome did not emphasise sea power, and pirates were able to operate quite easily from the Mediterranean coast of Cilicia (eastern Turkey). These Cilician pirates took slaves, ransomed prisoners, and attacked coastal ports and towns. It was alleged that the Cilician pirates had a thousand ships, which were adorned in gold, silver and purple, and that they sailed in squadrons commanded by admirals. Another pirate base was Crete, where pirates sailed out to take captives for slavery, since Crete continued to run a very large slave market.8 In this context, in the year 74 or 75BC, a young Roman by the name of Julius Caesar was captured by Aegean pirates. He was on his way to Rhodes to study rhetoric, but was taken by pirates operating from the island of Pharmacusa, off the coast of Caria. Reportedly, Caesar was offended by the low ransom of 20 talents demanded for him by the pirates, and raised it to 50 talents. This was an error because back home in Rome the dictator Sulla, an enemy of Caesar’s family, had confiscated Julius Caesar’s property and that of his wife. Consequently, the ransom took some 40 days to collect, although during this time Caesar and the pirates became reasonably friendly, even if Caesar promised to return and crucify his captors. After the ransom was deposited, Caesar was released, and true to his word, borrowed four galleys and attendant soldiers, and returned to capture the pirates and bring them to Pergamon. Caesar wanted immediate execution, but the local Roman governor was not used to such decisive action, especially because pirates and local merchants had evolved a mutual system of living and benefiting together, and so he forbade execution. But Caesar, showing the decisiveness of his future career, ordered the execution of the pirates anyway. Then, in view of their friendly relations during his captivity, Caesar took aside the 30 principal pirates and promised that their throats would be cut before crucifixion – a more merciful conclusion to their lives than the drawn out death of crucifixion.9

  Meanwhile, the Romans found that piracy from Crete was sufficiently damaging that several attempts to take Crete
were launched, for example the failed assault by Marc Antony in 72BC. It is reported that the fetters that Marc Antony placed in his ships were then used to bind the Roman prisoners on Crete.10 Romans were not used to failure, and in 69BC the Roman general Metellus launched three legions against Crete and conquered the island via a series of sieges and with considerable brutality. However, the situation for Rome became graver through the ravages of the Cilician pirates. Despite Metellus’ success, in 69BC the pirate Athenodorus captured Delos and desecrated the statues of their gods. Plutarch notes that pirates went on to plunder a further thirteen sanctuaries and 400 cities. Ships were attacked as well, also the harbor of Ostia, and then pirates captured two Roman praetors, dressed in purple, as well as the daughter of Antony, carried off from the port of Misenum, and ransomed. The final straw – and the most dangerous for Rome – was the threat by pirates to capture the grain fleet from Egypt in 67BC, which would be disastrous for the food supply of Rome.

  Consequently in 67BC, the Roman general Pompey, who had probably already been planning the campaign strategy, was appointed to command the fight against the pirates. Pompey was given 270 ships for the campaign, and started by guarding the grain supplies from Sicily, North Africa, and Sardinia. He then divided the Mediterranean and the Black Sea into thirteen commands, with the idea of isolating the pirates into small groups that could be dealt with separately. Pompey himself commanded a fleet of sixty ships. The campaign went well, though a recent analysis argues that the campaign only took four months, was a rushed job, and was really just aimed at securing the grain supply. In addition, Pompey’s victory over the pirates was hyped up and over emphasized since the threat of the Cilician pirates remained. Subsequently, Pompey led 100 ships to the Cilician coast, with numerous siege engines onboard because it was thought that the only way to defeat the pirates was to capture their land bases. However, it seems that the pirates did not fight, recognizing their likely defeat, but simply surrendered in return for good behavior, and resettlement as farmers. So Pompey simply gave them pardons.11

  The Cilician pirate threat had been removed for the time being, but full suppression of the pirates in the Mediterranean did not come until the rule of Octavian, who was named senator in 28BC, and then titled Augustus in 27BC. Augustus essentially got rid of the pirates by capturing the borders of the Mediterranean, thus denying pirates the use of ports and land bases. Following this, the Pax Romana generally kept the Mediterranean safe for traders until the gradual collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries. During this collapse, the Roman Empire was frequently assaulted by northern pirates, as well as by Franks and Saxons in the third and fourth centuries, and by Picts and Scots, and later, by Angles and Heruls.12 The decline of Rome meant that the Mediterranean eventually became prey to a very large number of new threats, including Vandals, Arabs and Muslims, Vikings, and later, Normans, and once more, Cretans. These national and ethnic groups might be termed pirates, raiders, freebooters, or semi-authorised fleets. Once again, it is very difficult to distinguish between a pirate and a legal raider as part of warfare.

  In the fourth and fifth centuries, one of the naval and land threats to Rome was the tribe known as the Vandals, who eventually migrated to North Africa. Their naval strength was not overwhelming, but the historian Procopius describes one maritime victory over a Roman fleet in 468, when the Vandal ships found the Romans unprepared and at anchor in a bay:

  And when they [the Vandal fleet] came near, they set fire to the boats which they were towing, when their sails were bellied by the wind, and let them go against the Roman fleet. And since there were a great number of ships there, these boats easily spread fire wherever they struck … And as the fire advanced in this way, the Roman fleet was filled with tumult, as was natural, and with a great din that rivaled the noise caused by the wind and the roaring of the flames, as the soldiers together with the sailors shouted orders to one another and pushed off with their poles the fire-boats and their own ships as well, which were being destroyed by one another in complete disorder. And already the Vandals too were at hand ramming and sinking the ships, and making booty of such of the soldiers as attempted to escape, and of their arms as well.13

  The Medieval Mediterranean

  The Vandals were followed by later Mediterranean raiders of all sorts as the Mediterranean became a battleground for maritime supremacy between three principal entities: the Muslims, the Byzantines, and the Christian West. Looking ahead, the Muslim eruption into the Mediterranean began in the seventh century, and achieved very considerable successes until the Byzantine resurgence around 750. Eventually, Byzantium dominated the Mediterranean by the tenth century. Despite this, Muslim attacks continued through the ninth and tenth centuries, although in the end these attacks did not succeed in dominating the Mediterranean. Then, from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, Western Christian shipping predominated in the Mediterranean, although during this time Muslim emirates and Ottomans continued their attacks on Western Christian and Byzantine shipping. Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, and through the sixteenth century the Ottoman attacks intensified. As might be imagined, these competing and constantly fluctuating rival powers in the Mediterranean made for a very complex situation, leading to a bewildering mixture of piracy, privateering, corsairs, and state sponsored raiding. As one historian wrote:

  Outright illegal piracy on the one hand and legitimized corsair activity under the licence of political authorities … on the other, were endemic throughout the Mediterranean from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. No region or time period was free from them, and there was no maritime city, state, or people whose seamen did not participate in them.14

  In this context, and in the discussion of medieval Mediterranean piracy, it will obviously be difficult to distinguish between piracy and other more legitimate or semi-legitimate attacks. With this warning in mind, and turning back to the earlier Muslim offensives in the seventh century, the Muslims started raiding in 634 and attacked North Africa, Constantinople, Spain, southern France, and a variety of Mediterranean targets such as Cyprus, Sicily, Rhodes, Sardinia and Crete. Muslim pirates eventually operated from a number of bases such as Fraxinetum in southern France, Monte Garigliano near Naples, and strongholds such as Bari, Palermo, and Tarentum. According to one source, these bases operated as an outer pirate screen of raiders, behind which the main Muslim fleets protected Muslim trading routes, and were able to launch major attacks.15 Defending against these operations was Byzantium, which fended off serious Muslim attacks against Constantinople itself in the seventh century and the early eighth century, and established maritime superiority by the tenth century before finally falling to the Ottomans. Among some of the tactics the Byzantine navy used against its opponents, including pirates, was to use one galley to engage an enemy galley and then use another galley to ram the opponent at the stern. Another idea was to ram and puncture the enemy galley and so fill it with water, causing it to sink. Of interest also is the Byzantine method of communicating at sea by using flags and purple cones as signals. Finally, the celebrated Byzantine Greek fire was used, which ignited on contact with water, and whose ingredients were a closely guarded secret.16

  Crete: 827–963

  In particular, the Byzantine naval revival by the tenth century enabled Byzantium to recapture Crete in 963 after more than a century of occupation by Muslim pirates. Crete had been captured in 827 by Spanish Muslims, following a number of their raids against the island. These Spanish Muslims were exiles from Cordoba in Spain as rebels against the local Emir. Under their chief Abu Hafs, these Spanish Muslims sailed to Crete from Alexandria. Abu Hafs ordered his followers to burn their boats, so they could not retreat, but in fact they met little resistance in Crete. They set up a fortress and surrounded it with a moat, ‘khandaq’ in Arabic, from which the place name of Candia emerged. For the next 135 years, Candia acted as a stronghold for these pirates, alleged to number 10,000, who raided the coasts and islands of G
reece, and were apparently financed by the city elites of Crete. Eventually, after several abortive attempts by the Byzantines to take Crete, one Nicephorus Phocas led a powerful Byzantine fleet of some 3,000 ships against the Muslim defenders of Crete in 960. Only Candia held out, and was besieged for eight months. Among the incidents relating to this siege was the symbolic announcement to the defenders of Candia, that their relief fleet had been destroyed, through the method of loading the Byzantine siege artillery with the severed heads of Muslim soldiers and firing them into Candia. Similarly, knowing that the defenders of Candia were starving, Phocas had an unfortunate live donkey fired into the city by a stone throwing machine, so that the donkey landed on its back, and lay with its legs waving in the air, to the amusement of the Byzantines. Yet another incident had an Arab woman of terrible appearance standing on the battlements of Candia, uttering curses and threats, and even undressing with indecent gestures. The Byzantine besiegers thought she was a witch, and fell into confusion, but one soldier simply shot her off her position, and resolved the crisis. Eventually, Candia could not hold out against starvation and fell in March 961.17

  Similar to Crete was the case of Majorca, which was a Muslim island from 902 to 1229, and was a favourite lair for pirates. It should be noted here that the operations of these Muslim corsairs from Crete and Majorca and other centres in the ninth, tenth and following centuries, were partly piracy, but more than piracy in the sense that most Muslim corsairs at this time considered their activities to be a form of jihad, intended to advance the frontiers of the Muslim world.18 Then, in the tenth century Byzantium began to recover a number of areas from the Muslims such as Cilicia and Cyprus, while the pirate bases of Garigliano and Fraxinetum was closed down in 915 and 972 respectively. Part of the reason for Muslim decline in the Mediterranean at this time, and with it Muslim pirate attacks, was the rivalry between different Muslim powers such as the Fatimids and the Ummayads. Later, under the Ottomans, Muslim naval power was to grow again, but in the meantime, two further semi-piratical powers emerged in the Mediterranean – the Normans, and the sea going cities of Pisa and Genoa.