The first to challenge the pirate peril was the semi-legendary King Minos of Crete whose palace at Knossos was built in the 17th century BC, during the Bronze Age.
Enterprising King, Powerful Navy
According to Thucydides, the Ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC, Minos was the first ruler in the eastern Mediterranean to gather his own fleet, and gain control of the sea lanes around his territory. From this position of strength, the King cleared out the local pirates and restored the flow of revenue to his kingdom, which they had previously blocked.
Thucydides also suggested that the Carians, who originated in mainland Greece and provided the manpower for the Minoan fleet, doubled as pirates. Minos, it seems, tolerated this sideline for a while but when it got out of hand, he expelled the Carians from Crete.
After 1900 AD, when the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating the Palace of Knossos and its surrounding area, his findings revealed - by inference - proof of Thucydides’ account.
Flourishing Crete
Minoan Crete was an ancient civilization marked by fabulous wealth and a standard of living far in advance of its time. Yet, as Evans discovered, these riches were relatively untouched even in Cretan towns with no protective walls: this would have been impossible unless pirates and other marauders were kept at bay by a strong naval presence.
Similarly, the trade between Crete and Ancient Egypt could not have continued as it did unless Cretan ships controlled the trans-Mediterranean sea lanes. That said, though, it was true that on Crete, the risk of pirate attack, though very much reduced, was not entirely eliminated.
Disaster on Minoan Crete
At Knossos in late Minoan times, the northern approaches to the royal palace had to be fortified in case of invasion by one of the numerous pirate bands operating out of southern Asia Minor.
King Minos’ precautions gave Crete some three centuries of comparative peace and safety until around 1400BC when a massive volcanic eruption occurred on Thera (Santorini) one of the Cyclades islands some 683 miles from Crete. The subsequent tsunami swept over Crete, literally removing the Minoan civilization and with it, the royal controls over the pirate menace.
The King’s role as guardian of the eastern Mediterranean was not filled, at least not effectively, for a very long time. Once Cretan control had gone, the area again became a dangerous place ravaged by invaders, raiders and freebooters from Samos, a hotbed of piracy in the Aegean Sea. More raiders came from Asia Minor and elsewhere along the Mediterranean coasts.
Freedom to pillage and plunder
Before long, passengers embarking on voyages in the Aegean did so knowing that they were risking their freedom, their possessions and sometimes their very lives.
Pirates from Tyre, Phoenicia and elsewhere did not scruple to board ships, seize women and boys and carry them off to sell in the slave markets. Some pirates moored at ports where, ostensibly, they were welcome, and then proceeded to snatch their victims off the streets.
In the open sea or close to a deserted coast, there was nothing to prevent marauding pirates from boarding and capturing a smaller vessel. The identity of the pirates varied, but the outcome was always destructive.
Turks usually chose to loot a captured ship. Pirates from North Africa took the youngest men aboard as slaves. Greeks concentrated on seizing cargo and, it seems, did not care if they were robbing their own compatriots. Meanwhile, on the shore, the coast of Attica in central Greece became a regular target for pirates who were possibly the descendants of King Minos’ Carians.
The terrible Tyrrhenians
Probably the most notorious of all the pirates who operated in the Mediterranean were the Tyrrhenians, whose name came from the Greek word for the Etruscans. The Tyrrhenians first appeared in the record in the early 4th century BC as raiders based on Lemnos, one of the Aegean islands.
Another of their hunting grounds was located around the Italian coasts. Tyrrhenian attacks were so destructive and their greed for plunder so intense that their name became a synonym for ‘pirate.’
Evidence of Tyrrhenian activities is fragmentary, but there is no doubt of their ferocity. In 325-324BC, the Athenians in Greece were so concerned about the danger the Tyrrehenians posed to their grain supplies that they stationed a squadron of naval vessels at the port of Adria, in south central Italy. Its purpose was to guard traders and their corn-ships from attack. The Athenians certainly meant business, for the arrangement was designed to be permanent.
Fear of the Tyrrhenians was Universal
The Athenians and Greeks from other city-states were among the most fearless and adventurous people in the ancient world and sought to explore and settle territories in the western Mediterranean and maybe beyond.
But even they were prevented from planting their presence too far west from home in case they fell foul of the Tyrrhenians or needed to intervene rapidly should their territory be attacked in their absence.
The Greeks were not alone. Fear of the Tyrrhenians was universal. For instance, on Delos, the smallest of the Cylades Islands, the inhabitants took out a large loan in 298BC. Its purpose was to build defenses and fortify their island as safeguards against these terrifying pirates.
Fortunately, though, the Tyrrhenians were not long on the pirate scene, lasting little more than 100 years. In the early 3rd century BC, according to an inscription on the island of Rhodes, there was some sort of confrontation between the pirates and the Rhodians which took place off the coast of Sicily or southern Italy.
After that, the Tyrrhenians vanished from the historical record and were never seen again, leaving behind only their name to identify the sea between the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia and the western coast of Italy.
Please See also: Fighting Pirates in the Mediterranean
Sources
- de Souza, Philip: Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Cambridge University Press, 2002) ISBN-10: 0521012406/ISBN-13: 978-0521012409
- Abulafia, David: The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean New York NY: Oxford University Press, 2011) ISBN-10: 0195323343/ISBN-13: 978-0195323344
- Doyle, Noreen. Mediterranean in Peril dig;Jul/Aug2008, Vol. 10 Issue 6, p18
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
