Travers Pirates: A History

A History
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7524-8827-1
Verlag: The History Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 160 Seiten

More than just a history of the real 'pirates of the Caribbean', Pirates: A History explores piracy from ancient times to the present day, from the bloodthirsty Viking raiders who terrorised northern Europe to the legendary female Chinese pirate of the 1920s, Lai Choi San. In this history we see how thin the line was between a royally chartered privateer and a pirate, most notably epitomised by Francis Drake. Then there were the Renegades: Europeans captured by the Barbary corsairs who converted to Islam and became pirate captains in their own right. Some were simply cut-throat drunkards, but many pirate ships were run on surprisingly progressive, democratic principles. The 'golden age' of piracy is examined afresh and the colourful characters of the era brought to life. Accounts of Blackbeard, Black Barty and William Kidd illustrate the truth behind the legends of the Jolly Roger.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Travers, Tim

Leseproben

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...