Pirates of Cilicia

  • The Pirates of Cilicia became a Sea Power and dominated the Eastern Mediterranean and the Slave Trade between 167 BCE and 67 BCE.
  • Coracesium was the HQ and Pirate Base in what is today modern Alanya in Turkey.

Plutarch

The Decline of the Rhodian Navy

  • The coastline of Cilicia consists of isolated headlands easily converted into strongholds, and protected from any massed land attack by mountains.
  • In 167 BCE, the Island of Delos was given the status of a free port with no Harbour Dues or Customs Dues.
  • Deprived of the trade in Slaves and general Goods, Rhodes was left with just the Grain and Wine trade, resulting in harbour receipts collapsing almost 90% in just one year, from 1,000,000 to 150,000 drachmas.
  • Consequently, the Rhodian Navy could no longer afford the ships and crew to police the Silician coast or the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Organisation of the Pirates of Cilicia

  • Coracesium means the ‘Crow’s Nest’ and is located in modern Alanya, Turkey. This became the Pirates’ 500 feet (152m) high Citadel and Headquarters.
  • The Pirates were organised like a Navy, with Flotillas commanded by Commodores and Fleets commanded by Admirals.
  • The two standard Warships were the Liburnian and the Hemiolia.
  • Agents in every Port found out the destinations and value of the cargoes of merchant ships then relayed the information back to HQ for the merchant vessels to be intercepted.
  • However, the Slave Trade was their main occupation, raiding coastal communities and cities then selling the captured population in the slave market at Delos. Sales of slaves through Delos reached 10,000 a day on several occasions.
  • Side, 30 miles (48km) from Coracesium, was then set up to become the Pirates’ own Slave market Port, eclipsing Delos.
  • According to Plutarch, the Pirate Fleet exceeded 1,000 ships and they controlled 400 cities, posing a challenge to the Power of Rome.
  • They controlled the Eastern Mediterranean from their bases at Cilicia, Cyprus and Crete.
  • They then seized control of the western Mediterranean by assisting a local usurper against Rome, and making one of the Balearic Islands their base, which extended their control up to the Strait of Gibraltar
  • In 89 BCE, Mithridates VI of Pontus hired them in his Mithridatic Wars against Rome. Their Fate then became intertwined with that of Mithridates.
  • In 88 BCE, the first Sack of Delos was performed by soldiers of Mithridates, killing 20,000 inhabitants.
  • However, because the merchants of Delos sold their slaves to the wealthy Roman owners of Plantations known as Latifundia, the latter discouraged a Roman armed response.

Julius Caesar and the Pirates of Cilicia

  • In 79 BCE, Julius Caesar, as a young man of 19 years old, was seized and ransomed for an extortionate 50 Talents, on route from Rome to Rhodes.
  • He was held for forty days on the island of Farmaco, east of Limnos. After the ransom had been paid and he was released, Caesar went to Miletus where he hired a fleet.
  • He then returned to Farmaco, located his captors and delivered them to Marcus Junius, the Governor of Asia in Pergamon, where they were imprisoned. When the Governor hesitated to put them on Trial, Caesar returned to the prison, removed them and had them all crucified.

Rome responds

  • In 77 BCE, Publius Servilius Vata defeated the Cilician Pirates at sea, and removed them from Lycia and Pamphylia. He then invaded Cilicia, but was prevented from reducing Coracesium by the advent of the Third Mithridatic War (75-63 BCE).
  • However, by depriving the Pirates of dominating the AAegean, they were forced to raid Italian shores.
  • In 69 BCE, Crete was invaded by Quintus Caecilius with three Legions, the Cilician Pirates were expelled and Crete declared a Roman Province in 67 BCE.

The Pirates attack Italy

  • Between 73-71 BCE, Spartacus received a promise of an alliance with a Pirate Fleet, probably the Cilician Pirates, but they reneged on the deal and never appeared, leading to his defeat.
  • By 70 BCE, the Pirates were kidnapping and ransoming wealthy Italian Nobles along the Via Appia, where it runs parallel to the coast.
  • In 69 BCE, Delos was finally sacked by the Cilician Pirates and it’s population sold as slaves. The Roman Treasury on Delos was plundered.
  • Puteoli in Italy then replaced Delos as the main Port of Italian trade with the East.
  • In 68 BCE, the Cilician Pirates sacked Ostia, the Port of Rome. The Republican Naval Fleet was burnt, the Port buildings set ablaze and two Roman Senators kidnapped.
  • The price of Wheat at Rome started to reach astronomical levels.

Pompey and the Pirates

  • In 67 BCE, the Lex Gabinia was proposed by the Tribune Aulus Gabinius and voted in by the Roman Senate.
  • This gave one man temporary dictatorial powers for three years to crush the Cilician Pirates. Gnaeus Pompey was allocated a budget, given 20 Legions and 500 ships, and awarded the same authority as a Provincial Governor up to 45 miles (72km) inland.
  • In 67 BCE, Pompey divided the Mediterranean into 13 sectors, with a Legate (Assistant) for each sector. This organisation was to form the basis for the future Provincial Squadrons of a later standing Roman Navy.
  • Starting from the Strait of Gibraltar, he sailed east with 60 vessels, driving the Pirates into each Legates’ waiting fleet and army. He cleared the western Mediterranean in 40 days. The escaping Pirates fled back to Cilicia.
  • His success culminated in the Naval Battle of Coracesium. Pompey surrounded the Pirate Fleet, despite being heavily outnumbered according to Plutarch, and the defeated sailors retreated into the citadel, which was then besieged and captured.
  • By occupying surrounding Cilicia, he then rounded up all the remaining Pirates over a period of three months, capturing 677 vessels.
  • The Pirates were generously spared and resettled inland, away from the sea.
  • Pompey then continued and won the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BCE) against Mithridates VI of Pontus, the Pirates’ Ally, after which he invaded Judaea, and captured Jerusalem.

Sources

  • Appian of Alexandria (c.95-165 CE), The Mithridatic War, 91-93.
  • Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Life of Pompey, 24-25.1
  • Cassius Dio, Roman History, 36.20-23,1-4

Other Pirate Fleets

  • Pirates of Liburnia
    • They controlled the Adriatic from their many islands off the coast of Croatia.
    • They invented the Liburnian Warship with two banks of oars, developing a fleet of 220 vessels that they hired out usually to the Kings of Macedon.
    • 168 BCE They were finally crushed by Rome after their Ally King Perseus was defeated at the Battle of Pydna.
    • The Liburnian was so good, it was later adopted as the standard warship by all the Provincial Fleets of the Roman Navy.
  • Pirates of Crete
    • These controlled Cape Maleas, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnese, which all shipping between Italy and Greece had to pass around. Until 167 BCE, the Rhodian Navy had pursued these Pirates.
  • Pirates of the Black Sea
    • The Pirates of the Black Sea were active between 17 BCE and 46 CE.
    • They were the Tribes of the Caucasus, the Heniochi, the Achaie and the Zygi.

 

Coracesium (Alanya), Turkey

Get Directions Go to Visitor Map
Posted in .