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Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World

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Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World Philip de Souza ab published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 1011-4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia ( Cambridge University Press 1999 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Times New Roman [ao] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 521 48137 6 hardback Contents List of plates page viii Acknowledgements ix Maps xi 1 Introduction 1 2 The origins of piracy from the Bronze Age to Alexander 15 3 Hellenistic piracy 43 4 Cilician piracy 97 5 Pompey and the pirates 149 6 Pax Romana 179 7 Piracy in Late Antiquity 225 8 Conclusions 241 Bibliography 243 General index 254 Index of sources 266 Plates 1 and 2 Athenian Black Figure drinking cup of the mid sixth century BC, showing a merchant ship and a warship. London, British Museum BF 346. ( Copyright the British Museum page 24 3 Silver denarius minted by Faustus Cornelius Sulla in 56 BC, in praise of his former commander Pompey the Great. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum. Photo: Museum 174 4 Detail of mosaic of the third century AD from Dougga in North Africa, showing Dionysos/Bacchus turning the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. Tunis, National Museum of Bardo. Photo: Museum 217 1 Introduction Sometime in the second century BC the citizens of the Athenian colony on Imbros in the Northern Aegean had the following decree inscribed in stone: Decided by the people. Teleas, son of Aristokratos, of Cholargos proposed: since Lysanias is benevolent towards the people, and, there being a hostile attempt by some people against the island, he did not make light of it, nor shrink back from the danger to himself, but stood ®rm and brought news of the descent of the pirates. Therefore, so that the people may show their gratitude, it is proposed: With good fortune, it has been decided by the people that Lysanias, son of Aris- tokratos, of Deradiotai, is to be praised, and he is to be crowned with a crown of gold . .1 It would seem that as soon as he was aware of the hostile strangers' approach, Lysanias knew exactly what word to use to rouse his compa- triots: pirates! Their enthusiastic praise of his actions re¯ects a mortal fear of the sudden descent of pirates and the panic and su¨ering which might result. Murder, pillage and kidnap by seaborne raiders were famil- iar terrors for many of the inhabitants of the Mediterranean in Classical times. The surviving historical records contain many instances of piratical attacks on both land and sea. From the poems of Homer to the works of St Augustine pirates and piracy are a recurring theme in Classical litera- ture. Why was piracy such a problem in the Graeco-Roman world? What e¨orts were made to suppress it, and how successful were they? These are some of the questions which this book will address through a detailed examination of the ancient sources. Piracy is a term normally applied in a pejorative manner. Pirates can be de®ned as armed robbers whose activities normally involve the use of ships. They are men who have been designated as such by other people, re- gardless of whether or not they consider themselves to be pirates. In the 1 IG XII.8.53, lines 1±13. The inscription continues with further honours for Lysanias. The date of some time before 166 BC, proposed by the editors (IG XII.8.4), is to be preferred to Ormerod's suggestion of the ®rst century BC; Ormerod (1924): 139. 1 2 Introduction Graeco-Roman world the use of pirate as a term for undesirable `others' is the usual way in which piracy is presented to the scholar. The pirates of Classical Antiquity are identi®ed by their victims and their enemies, they do not claim the label of pirate for themselves. It is important to establish at an early stage that all evidence of piracy in the Graeco-Roman world is textual. Piracy is not a phenomenon which can be documented from the material remains of Classical civilizations. Ancient pirates did not leave any distinct trace in the archaeological rec- ord, unlike soldiers, whose graves, equipment and habitations are fairly easy to identify.2 A history of piracy can, therefore, be written only on the basis of texts which mention pirates or piracy in explicit terms, or which can be shown to refer implicitly to pirates or piracy, according to the normal usage of these terms in the culture which produced the texts. There have been several histories of ancient piracy by modern scholars, notably Sestier, Ormerod and Ziebarth.3 All of these have tended to treat piracy as a relatively straightforward and unchanging phenomenon, assuming, implicitly or explicitly, that the terms pirate and piracy meant much the same in the Graeco-Roman world as they did up to the end of the nineteenth century.4 This book presents a new and radically di¨erent historical interpretation of the ancient Graeco-Roman texts relating to piracy, in which the emphasis is on understanding the use of the labels pirate and piracy in their historical and cultural contexts. I have deliber- ately taken a sceptical approach to mentions of pirates in ancient texts. In each case I have tried to determine why the individuals or groups de- scribed as pirates have been labelled in this way. My aim has been to produce not merely a narrative of piratical events, but an historical anal- ysis of the development of the terms piracy and pirate in the Graeco- Roman world from c. 800 BC to AD 700. Language Since the basis of this study is an examination of Classical texts relating to piracy, it is necessary to explore brie¯y the Greek and Latin vocabulary 2 For an optimistic attempt to assemble archaeological evidence which may relate to piracy see Gianfrotta (1981). There was no distinctive visual image of piracy in the Graeco- Roman world, but see Pls. 1±4 for a range of images. 3 Sestier (1880); Ormerod (1924); Ziebarth (1929). 4 Recent studies of particular importance include the excellent essay by Jackson (1973); the detailed analysis of Cretan piracy by Brule (1978); the attempt at categorization of piracy by Garlan (1978), which reappeared in a revised form as Garlan (1989). Since the thesis on which this book is based was completed there have also been studies of the Romans' atti- tude to piracy by Pohl (1993); Braund (1993); and a very good article on the Cilician pirates by Avidov (1997). Language 3 for piracy. Piracy and banditry were much more closely linked in the ancient world, in terms of both language and perception, than they are today. It is, therefore, also important to consider how far the ancient language of piracy and banditry overlap and to what extent it is possible to distinguish between the two in ancient writings. Ancient Greek has two common words which can be translated as pirate, lhÎ sth v (leistes) and peirath v ( peirates)5. The former is attested in Homer in various forms6 and it continues to be used by Greek writers throughout the period covered by this book. It derives from the same root as lhi v (leis), meaning booty or plunder, i.e. the Indo-European root la5 or lau, and its essential meaning is armed robber or plunderer, for which the common English terms are bandit or pirate. The second word, peirath v ( peirates), is a later arrival in the vocabu- lary of the ancient Greek sources, not being found in Homer or any of the writers of the Classical period (c. 500±330 BC). Peirates and words de- rived from it continue to be used in the sources right up to the end of our period, and have meanings synonymous with leistes and its derivatives7. The derivation of peirates is probably from the word peira, meaning a trial or attempt, and it may be connected with peirao, meaning to make an attempt at something. An alternative derivation from the word prasso, meaning to pass through, achieve, is also possible, but unlikely.8 The earliest datable occurrence of the word peirates is in an Attic in- scription of the mid third century BC from Rhamnous. It is a deme decree in honour of Epichares, who was elected as strategos with special re- sponsibility for coastal defence during the archonship of Peithidemos,9 and undertook vigorous defensive measures during the Chremonidean war. The decree mentions a ransoming or exchange of prisoners arranged by Epichares and also indicates that the prisoners were taken by peiratai, who had been brought into the area by people described as `from the city', i.e. Athens. Epichares held an enquiry and punished the guilty: ... eÈ ko lase deÁ kaiÁ touÁ - [v k]aqhgoume nouv eiÈ v t[hÁ ]n cw ran toiÄv peirataiÄ v, labwÁ n kaiÁ eÈ xeta sav auÈ tou v, oÆ n- [ta]v eÈ kthÄ vpo lewv, [aÈ xi w]v wÁ neÆ pratton. 5 There is also another word for pirate, the much rarer katapontisth v (katapontistes), which is found only occasionally in Greek literature; see below pp.
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