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Welcome to Pirates! Fact- General History.
[Introduction]
[Ancient Piracy] [Roman Times]
[Middle Ages] [Golden
Years of Piracy]
[Contemporary Pirates]
One of the oldest documents (inscription on a clay tablet) describing pirates
dates back to Pharo Echnaton (1350 BC). The report mentions notorious free lance
Mediterranean shipping attacks in North Africa.
Greek merchants who were trading with ports in Phoenicia and Anatolia
occasionally allude casually to piracy, a classic by-product of such trading
activity. There is epigraphic evidence for piracy as well: in the 340s Athens
honored Cleomis, tyrant of Methymna on Lesbos, for ransoming a number of Athenians
captured by pirates
The Aethiopica one of the ancient Greek novels by Heliodorus of Emesa (3rd
century AD) tells the story of an Ethiopian princess and a Thessalian prince who
undergo a series of perils (battles, voyages, piracy
, abductions, robbery, and torture) before their eventual happy marriage in the
heroine's homeland.
Polycrates (Greek tyrant) seized control of the city of Samos during a
celebration of a festival of Hera outside the city walls. After eliminating his two
brothers, who had at first shared his power, he established despotism, and ships
from his 100-vessel fleet committed acts of piracy
that made him notorious throughout Greece.
[Introduction]
[Ancient Piracy] [Roman Times]
[Middle Ages] [Golden
Years of Piracy]
[Contemporary Pirates]
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General History
