The origins of the modern term “piracy” can be traced back to the ancient Greek word peiráomai, meaning attempt (i.e., “attempt to steal”). Gradually this term morphed into a similar sounding term in Greek meaning “brigand,” and from that to the Latin term pirata

Despite all the movies and literature popularizing the Golden Age of Pirates during the 16th Century, you might be surprised to read that piracy was also a common occurrence during the times of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. For example, there is evidence of the existence of pirates on a clay tablet dating back to the time of the Egyptian pharaoh, Echnaton, who was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty around 1340 BC, which describes pirates targeting ships in North Africa.

Why was piracy common in Ancient Greece and Rome?

Firstly, these were the richest civilizations during the height of their dominance and therefore the amount of goods entering the Greek and Roman empires would have been substantial and highly attractive for pirates. Also, ships from those times used to sail near the coast, which made them easy targets for pirates. In addition, ongoing wars and feuds between countries brought fertile ground for pirates to “legitimately” attack enemies, stealing their merchandise in the name of land and country.

Were there pirates in ancient Greece?

The ancient Greeks had a pirate base on the Lipari Islands (Aeolian Islands) located to the North of Sicily, where they dominated for more than 2,500 years as well as Illyria on the Adriatic Sea and Crete from where they would attack ships. The Lycians (Lycia was part of what we know today as modern Turkey) were also known for their piracy and were pretty successful until Egypt’s Ramses III destroyed their havens in 1194 BC.

Perhaps the most famous pirates of ancient times, were the Cilician pirates whose territory was located in what is modern Turkey. They were most famous for kidnapping Julius Caesar in 78 BC asking for a large ransom to be paid, and were a major threat to the Roman empire. After he was released, Julius Caesar made a point of hunting down his kidnappers and had them killed.

8 famous ancient Greek pirates and their stories:

• Dicaearchus of Aetolia

Dicaearchus, Dicearchus, or Diceärch (died 196 BC) was an Aetolian commander and pirate. In 205–204 BC, Dicaearchus was employed by Philip V of Macedon to raid the Cyclades and Rhodian ships. Dicaearchus had a tradition in which wherever he landed he would build two temples, one to Asebeia, which means impiety, and another to Paranomia, which means lawlessness. Dicaearchus was later captured by the Egyptians, and he was racked and scourged before being put to death.

• Boukris

Boukris or Boucris was an Aetolian pirate in the 3rd century BC who raided the Attic countryside and carried off slaves for sale to Crete. The incident is known from a Greek inscription where the Athenians honoured Eumaridas, a Cretan from Kydonia, for releasing the captives. He may be the same person with Boukris son of Daitas from Naupactus, proxenos in Delos. Boukris was also a hieromnemon of the Aetolians in Delphi in the same century.

• Dionysius the Phocaean

Dionysius the Phocaean or Dionysius of Phocaea  (Floruit 494 BC) was a Phocaean admiral of ancient Greece during the Persian Wars of 5th century BC, and was the commander of the Ionian fleet at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC. Although commanding a formidable force, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, his men were worked so hard in preparing for battle that on the eve of the battle they refused to engage the Persian fleet.

Although little is known of his life, Dionysius was in command of the Ionian contingent, gathered from the many islands throughout Ionia, which joined the main Greek naval force outside Miletus' port of Lade. Upon his arrival in the naval camp of Lade, he observed that his men displayed low morale and suffered from a lack of discipline. Believing his men were unprepared for the impending battle, he called a general assembly among the camp and, in a speech to his men, said: "Now for our affairs are on the razor's edge, men of Ionia, wither we are to be free or slaves [...] so if you will bear hardships now, you will suffer temporarily but be able to overcome your enemies."

He then began ordering his men to perform several hours of martial exercises a day as well as drawing out the fleet in the order of battle and instructed the rowers and marines in naval tactics. After a week, dissension began to appear within the ranks of the Samians and other officers (particularly as Dionysius, who arrived with only three ships, exerted such a strong influence over the rest of the fleet).

Even as the battle began, many of the Ionian ships under the command of Dionysius still refused to engage with the Persians and eventually almost 120 of the 350 Greek warships abandoned the battle leaving the remaining Greek ships to be annihilated leaving the city of Miletus to the mercy of the Persians. Despite this setback, Dionysius continued fighting the Persians sinking three warships before being forced to retreat during the final hours of the battle.

Returning to Phocaea, Dionysius attacked several trading vessels and seized their cargo before arriving in Sicily. During his later years, he would become involved in piracy against the Carthaginian and Tyrsenian merchants. However, in keeping with the friendship between Phocaea and Greece, he left travelling Grecian merchants alone.

• Glaucetas

Glaucetas , sometimes transliterated Glauketas (Floruit 315 – 300 BC), was a Greek privateer chiefly active in the Aegean Sea during the 4th century BC. Although little is known about his life, he is recorded in ancient Greek inscriptions describing how the Athenian navy under Thymochares of Sphettos raided his base on Kythnos and captured him and his men, thus "making the sea safe for those that sailed thereon."

• Panares

Panares was a Greek general (strategos) of the ancient Cretan city of Kydonia in 69 BC at the time when the Romans attacked the city. Kydonia had aligned itself with the interests of pirates and incurred the anger of the Roman Senate. The Romans commissioned the praetor Marcus Antonius to take care of the Pirate Problem in the Mediterranean. In 69 BC, he besieged Kydonia. When the Romans vanquished Kydonia, Panares surrendered the city, while his fellow strategos, Lasthenes, fled to Knossos.

• Ameinias the Phocian

Ameinias the Phocian  (flourished 277/272 BC) was an ancient Greek pirate and mercenary leader in the service of king Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedon.

Ameinias was from the region of Phocis in Central Greece. In his early career he had been a pirate captain, but in either 277 or 276 BC Antigonus Gonatas employed him to overcome the cruel tyrant of Cassandreia, Apollodorus, who had resisted a Macedonian siege for ten months.

Ameinias accordingly proceeded to gain the trust of the tyrant, pretending that his role was to reconcile Apollodorus to Antigonus and settle the dispute between them. He also supplied him with provisions and wine and thus convinced him to lower his guard. Meanwhile, Ameinias secretly prepared an army of two thousand men and a group of ten Aetolian pirates under the command of Melatas (or Melotas). Observing that the walls of Cassandreia were thinly guarded, the pirates climbed to the parapet between the towers and fixed the ladders for the two thousand men, who immediately advanced and conquered the city. Ameinias then invited Antigonus to take possession of the conquered city.

In 272 BC, Ameinias was still in the service of the Macedonian king, being attested as the garrison commander of Corinth, who led a mercenary force into the Peloponnese to aid the Spartans against king Pyrrhus of Epirus. A year later Ameinias was probably substituted by a new governor, the historian Craterus.

In 258 BC, a man named Ameinias was archon at Delphi in Phocis, but any connection of this man with the former pirate has not been determined.

• Taphians

In Homeric Greece, the islands of Taphos lay in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Acarnania in northwestern Greece, home of seagoing and piratical inhabitants, the Taphians. Penelope mentions the Taphian sea-robbers when she rebukes the chief of her suitors, and it is disguised as Mentes, "lord of the Taphian men who love their oars", that Athena accepts the hospitality of Telemachus and speeds him on his journey from Ithaca to Pylos. The Taphians dealt in slaves.

By the time of Euripides, the islands were identified with the Echinades: in Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis (405 BC), the chorus of women from Chalcis have spied the Hellenes' fleet and seen Eurytus who "led the Taphian warriors with the white oar-blades, the subjects of Meges, son of Phyleus, who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land." Modern scholars, such as the editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, identify the island of Taphos as the island of Meganisi just east of the larger island Lefkada (Leucas).

The Taphians accounted themselves the descendants of Perseus, for the mother of Taphius, their eponymous colonizer, was a granddaughter of Perseus and lay with Poseidon to beget the heroic founder. Another tradition holds that Taphius was one of the Leleges, and grandson of Lelex. Their most noted king was Pterelaos, rendered immortal by Poseidon by the single golden hair among the hairs of his head, but undone by his faithless daughter (Comaetho) who plucked it while he slept, so that the Mycenaean adventurer Amphitryon of Tiryns could overcome and kill him and retrieve the cattle Pterelaos' sons had rustled from Mycenae, along with many spoils besides. As he was returning with his spoils to his bride at Thebes, Zeus preceded him by one night: taking Amphitryon's shape, and brandishing a Taphian cup as a sign of his success, the king of gods fathered Heracles.

They are often identified with the Tilevoides, islands in the Ionian Sea.

• Teleboans

In Greek mythology, the Teleboans were an Acarnanian tribe. They were said to descend from one Teleboas, a son of Pterelaus and brother of Taphius, the eponym of the Taphians. After dwelling for a time on the mainland, the Teleboans settled on the island of Taphos which was populated by their kinsmen. From the island the two tribes led piratical raids across Greece, and the names "Teleboan" and "Taphian" were later taken to refer to any inhabitant of Taphos. The Taphians and Teleboans murdered the brothers of Alcmene (to whom both tribes were related), a crime punished by her husband Amphitryon's sacking of their villages with the help of the Boeotians, Locrians and Phocians.

The end of Greek Piracy

The Greek pirates enjoyed their heyday over hundreds of years until the rise of the Roman empire, when the Romans began to put a stop to the pirate attacks around 70BC. The Romans brought order to the mediterranean until their fall to the German Goths in 476 AD when piracy began to rise once again.

Source: wikipedia - Pirate show Cancun - nationalgeographic