Piracy was not the main source of slaves in the ancient world, but the slave trade was an important source of income for pirates, who often took captives when they attacked people at sea or on land. No coastal town along the Mediterranean or merchantman was totally safe from attack, but certain areas were especially dangerous.
An early group were the Tyrrhenians (probably Etruscans, Italians, Sardinians, Greeks) operating in the Tyrrhenian Sea west of Italy. Farther to the east, the Cretans made sailing past Cape Malea (southeast Peloponnese), which every vessel plying between Greece and Italy had to round, a risky business.
But neither group could compare with the size, organisation and destructiveness of the ‘Cilician’ pirates, based in ‘rough’ Cilicia Trachea (west) and neighbouring Pamphylia, who auctioned their captives as slaves on Delos and in the Pamphylian city Side. Strabo (64/3-00-c.24) attributes the origin of Cilician piracy to the encouragement given by Diodotus Tryphon (r.142 138 BC), who led a revolt against the rule of the Seleucids in the late 140s BC.
Ironically it was the Romans, more than anyone else, who brought about this immense growth of piracy in the second century BC. By crippling the Seleucid and then the Rhodian fleet they had removed the major resistance to piracy in the eastern Mediterranean.
The first recorded campaign against the Cilician pirates was waged by Marcus Antonius (1) the orator in 102 BC. After his expedition, naval bases were established on the southwest coast of Asia Minor to prevent Cilician ships from sailing into the Aegean and thus ended their trade with Delos.
The next campaign (78-74 BC) against the pirates, who now had settlements all along the southern coast, was led by 13Servilius Vatia (c.78; fl.90-44 BC). He campaigned inland among the mountains of Isauria and annexed Cilicia Trachea, the mountainous western half of Cilicia. He easily defeated the pirate fleets, which were no match for his ships in battle, but his net contribution to the reduction piracy is judged to have been negligible as it continued to be rampant in the East.
In 74 BC the Senate decided to deal with piracy the problem by identifying it as a praetorian command. Antonius (3), son of the orator, was invested with proconsular imperium over the sea and seacoasts. He opened a naval campaign, with 04Julius Caesar as a legate, but was outmanoeuvred by pirate ships and pursued them westwards. After landing on Crete and setting up a headquarters he attacked the pirate coastal bases. He sustained a serious defeat here in 72 BC, was forced to negotiate a treaty and died shortly afterwards.
In 69 BC the consul 12Caecilius Metellus (c.85; fl.74-late 50s BC) was sent with three legions to reduce Crete, which he did with such cruelty (68/7 BC) that the Cretans chose to surrender to an officer sent by Pompey.
In 68 BC pirates raided the Roman port of Ostia, destroyed the Roman fleet at anchor there and cut off the flow of grain into Rome. In 67 BC the tribune Gabinius (2) passed the lex Gabinia de piratis persequendis, which gave Pompey proconsular powers in any province within fifty miles of the Mediterranean and authorised him to combat piracy with an army of twenty legions and a navy of some three hundred ships.
His most pressing task was to reopen the sea lanes between Rome and the corn producing regions. He therefore concentrated his activities on the routes to Sicily, Sardinia, Egypt and Africa. As a result, the pirates were unable to support one another and within forty days the western Mediterranean had been cleared. The pirates were driven back to the East, until finally they had to withdraw inside their fortified strongholds, which were besieged by the Romans from all sides. As a final resort they confronted the Romans in a naval battle off Coracesium, their main base, but were crushed by Pompey’s fleet. More than thirteen thousand ships were set on fire and the pirates collectively threw themselves on Pompey’s mercy. To most of them he offered land in the islands of Asia Minor.
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