Chapter 1 Wonders of the Ancient World

Pirates, corsairs, filibusters...

The word "pirate", or in Latin "pirata", comes from the Greek "peirates". Translated, this means "a man who seeks his happiness at sea". Piracy is an attack for the purpose of robbing ships that are owned by other people or companies. In the Russian Military Encyclopedia of the early 20th century, piracy is defined as "sea robbery committed by private individuals, on a private initiative and with a mercenary purpose against someone else's property". Recently, we are beginning to get used to the phrase "air piracy" - when terrorists seize a plane with hostages and demand a ransom or the fulfillment of any other conditions.

It is believed that the pirate is the oldest "profession", which appeared many millennia ago, almost simultaneously with the craft of the navigator. The ancient tribes that lived along the shores of the seas, without any remorse, attacked the boats of neighbors that did not belong to them. With the development of trade, piracy also spread. Sea robbery was a very profitable occupation.

The ancient Greeks traveled around the Mediterranean and engaged in maritime robbery under the leadership of brave and courageous people who considered themselves heroes. At that time, piracy was an honorable craft, they were proud of it. Only courageous people could challenge the sea and fight bravely in its open spaces, winning for themselves and for their country untold riches.

Piracy was often encouraged by the state or powerful individuals. For example, buccaneers , engaged in maritime robbery, tried in any way to get a paper that allowed them to engage in maritime robbery. Most of these papers were fake. Enjoyed government support corsairs, privateers, privateers. All these pirates were united by a common goal - the robbery of merchant ships.
Buccaneers and filibusters attacked any merchant ships. It didn't matter to them who they belonged to. French corsairs, German privateers and English privateers, as a rule, robbed merchant ships only of hostile countries. Corsair courts were owned by private individuals, which had special patents from the government that allowed sea robbery. In the case when the corsairs were captured, they were considered prisoners of war, and not robbers. Most of the profits of the corsairs went to the owners of the ship, part to the corsairs themselves and part to the government.

Piracy is a profitable business. The governments of many countries understood this and did not want to share the profits with ship owners. This is how raiders came into being. . Raiders were hired, they were paid a salary. All the loot was kept by the government. If pirates and corsairs rarely sank ships without first plundering them, then for the raiders the main thing was to inflict losses on the enemy. Their task is to destroy as many enemy ships as possible.

Pirates quite often attacked not only ships, but also coastal villages. The sea robbers did not see much difference in whom to rob, and women, the elderly and children were dealt with just as cruelly as soldiers and sailors.
In ancient times, piracy flourished in the Mediterranean. In 67 B.C. e. Pompey managed to clear Mediterranean and Black Seas from robbers. But it was not in his power to completely exterminate piracy.

And after Pompey, many states made repeated attempts to destroy piracy. However, so far it has not been possible to completely secure sea routes from robbers. The history of piracy continues today.

Pirates of antiquity

Robbers of the Black Sea

In the warm waters of the Mediterranean, mankind took its first steps in navigation. At first, on logs and makeshift rafts, people tried to move away from the coast. As time went on, boats appeared, hollowed out from a tree trunk. The first ships were woven from reeds- such ships sailed in Babylonia and Egypt.
Among the peoples of the Ancient World, the Phoenicians achieved the greatest success. Many secrets of shipbuilding were adopted from them by the Greeks, who learned how to build strong and reliable ships. The Greeks often encountered barbarian tribes who lived on the outskirts of the world they studied. The first barbarian ships were boats made from animal skins. During the war with the Gauls, Julius Caesar's army clashed with the Veneti, who sailed the sea in ships made of oak.

Poet of Ancient Rome Avien, describing the life of the ancient Britons, tells that “They do not build ships from pine, not from maple and not from spruce, but miraculously they make ships from sewn skins, and often on such ships of strong skin they cross the wide seas.”

Having mastered the surroundings mediterranean, the Greeks "discovered" the Black Sea. The sailors were amazed at the severity of the new lands. They moved along the coast and did not dare to go to the open sea, where their fragile ships were drowned by frequent storms. The Greeks were confused by winter storms and wild tribes, they called it sea ​​Pont Aksinsky- inhospitable. Sailors told in their homeland about voyages along Pontus, which lies as far from their home as Pillars of Hercules, - at the very edge of the inhabited earth.
Ancient Greek historians Strabo and Xenophonwrite about the Thracian tribe, who were engaged in coastal robbery. They attacked the ships that the storm threw ashore. In an effort to plunder the ship as quickly as possible, the Thracians from different tribes often fought among themselves for booty. In the end, the entire coast was divided into sections between the tribes.

But the Thracians were not very dangerous for Greek sailors. They did not have their own ships, and they sat on the shore waiting for the next storm ... In the mountains Crimean peninsula Taurus tribes lived, who were called one of the most desperate robbers of the Ancient World. Storms often washed Greek ships into their land, which they called Tauris. Winds and currents smashed ships into chips on the coastal cliffs. Like the Thracians, the Tauri went down to the water and picked up the remaining good. But they were not content with the role of ordinary "gatherers", so they built boats on which they went on pirate raids.

The Taurians did not have leaders, they lived in a community. Men hunted or attacked Greek ships, women were engaged in collecting edible roots and berries and raising children. An observer sat on the top of the mountain, watching whether a ship was approaching Tauris. The trade route of the Greeks ran along the Crimean coast from Chersonese to Panticapaeum. Tauri attacked the Greeks, suddenly appearing from secluded coves. One of them, according to Strabo, was “a bay with a narrow entrance, near which the Taurus, a Scythian tribe, who attacked those who hid in this bay, mainly arranged their dens; it is called the Bay of Symbols". These days it's Balaklava bay near Sevastopol.

During the battle, small boats of the Taurians covered the Greek ships in a semicircle. The high sides of their boats sheltered the soldiers from enemy arrows. Coming close, the Taurians jumped from the boats onto the deck of a strange ship. Those who resisted were killed without mercy. The captives were sacrificed to the Virgin, the goddess worshiped by the Taurians. The Greeks believed that Virgo - daughter of Agamemnon Iphigenia. The gods brought her to Taurida, and here she became high priestess.

The Taurians killed the prisoners with a blow of a huge club. Then they cut off the heads of the corpses and put them on poles that were stuck at the entrance to the huts. The more poles stood at the door of the house of the brand, the more he was revered and respected in the tribe. Often there were skirmishes among the Taurians over booty. It happened that after an unsuccessful campaign, the Taurians attacked their relatives.
Not far from the lands of the Taurians, the Greeks built a village, which soon grew and became known as the city of Chersonese. The Taurians tried more than once to seize it, but each time they met with an armed rebuff. In addition, there were always several warships in the harbor. The Greeks erected strong walls around Chersonesus, and the small detachments of the Taurians suffered setbacks.

Greek settlers arrived in the Northern Black Sea region on trade, transport and warships. Local residents most often did not see such ships and did not know how to use them, but in other places the maritime business was quite developed, and the Greeks themselves considered these barbarian tribes experienced sailors. The Scythians sailed along the coast, and shallow bay Sivash overcame on boats sewn from animal skins.

The Scythians, having become acquainted with the ships of the Greeks, themselves began to build light ships, on which they robbed foreigners. Their ships had a curious feature: the upper parts of the sides were located close to each other, and the hull expanded downwards. During a storm, the side was built up with boards, forming a roof that protected the ship from the waves. The sharp and curved contours of the hull allowed the ship to land on the shore both stern and bow. The Greeks called such ships kamaras.

The Greek city-states fought not only with the gloomy Scythians, but also with each other. Sailors from the island of Lesbos, led by tyrant of Miletus Histius blocked Thracian Bosporus Strait and captured in the region of Byzantium in 494-493 BC. e. merchant ships coming from Pontus. They let through only those ships that agreed to pay tribute to them.
The Greeks could not imagine their life without the sea. The great philosopher Socrates wrote: “We live only on a small part of the earth from Phasis (Rion River) to the Pillars of Heracles, located around the sea, like ants or frogs around a swamp”. The Greeks believed that death is very close to a person - no further than the sea behind the ship's hull. One day Scythian sage Anacharsis, traveling on a ship, asked the sailor how thick the boards from which the ship was made. He replied that they were four fingers thick. “Here we are,” the wise man said with a sigh, “we are just as far away from death.”

In the 5th-6th centuries BC. e. started Great Greek colonization. The Greeks went on distant campaigns, the purpose of which was not only trade relations, but also pirate robberies. Brave and enterprising Greek sailors at their own peril equipped ships, recruited teams and set sail in search of booty and profit. When the opportunity presented itself, they attacked other ships, seizing cargo and enslaving the crew, plundering poorly defended coastal villages. And if there was not enough strength for robbery, they began to trade.

Evidence of such campaigns begins with Homeric poems and ancient Greek myths. Campaign of Jason and the Argonauts to Colchis for the Golden Fleece- the most striking example of a successful pirate voyage. And how many robberies are described in the Odyssey!
In 467 BC. e. Athenian strategist Aristidesorganized a military expedition to Pontus.

Another strategist - Pericles - at the head of a large squadron of triremes in 437 BC. e. went to the Black Sea to show the power of his fleet and assert Athenian influence. Plutarch writes: “Pericles, entering Pontus with a large and well-equipped fleet, did everything for the Hellenic cities that they asked for, and generally treated favorably, and showed the surrounding barbarian tribes the magnitude of the power of the Athenians, fearlessness and courage, with which they sailed wherever they wanted and conquered all the seas."
During Peloponnesian War 431-404 B.C. e.in the narrow place of the Bosphorus, at Christopolis, the Athenians charged every ship entering and leaving Pontus a ten percent duty on the cargo carried. It was a real robbery!

This is interesting!

It is not known for certain who first came up with the idea to build a ship from planks. Although, for example, Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History" put everything on the shelves. “For the first time, Danai arrived in Greece on a ship from Egypt; before that, people sailed on rafts invented in the Red Sea by King Erythra for sailing between the islands. The ancient historian knows who invented the various items necessary for navigation - “The Phoenicians were the first to guide the way along the stars during navigation; the oar was invented by the cops and brought to the proper width of the plate; Icarus invented the sails, Daedalus invented the mast and yard; cavalry ship was the first to be built the Samians and the Athenian Pericles; the ship with a solid deck is the Thasians. Rostra (ram) attached for the first time to the bow of the ship son of Tyrrhenus, Piseus; the anchor was invented by Eupalam, and Anacharsis made it two-pronged; grappling hooks and "hands" were invented by the Athenian Pericles; the steering wheel was invented by Triphis. The first naval battle was given by Minos.

Ring of Polycrates

The island of Samos lies off the coast of Ionia opposite the city of Miletus. It is washed by the waters of the warm Aegean Sea. Only experienced helmsmen can guide merchant ships into the harbor of Samos in the labyrinth of large and small islands.
Miracles spread throughout Greece tyrant Polycrates ruling on the island. Nowhere within the Oikoumene is there such a majestic Temple of Goddess Hera like in Samos. Nowhere are ships so well protected from storms and winter storms - the harbor of Samos is protected by a strong breakwater three hundred cubits long. They also say that when Polycrates needed to run a water pipe to the city, he did not build bypass canals, but cut through the mountain, arranging a tunnel a thousand steps long in it.

The wealth of all the lands lying around Samos flocked to Polycrates. The ruler did not hesitate to equip squadrons of high-speed ships that robbed coastal cities and attacked merchant ships. He was paid tribute by everyone who sailed past the island or stopped for the night in a wonderful harbor. Polycrates was the ruler of the Aegean.

Many years ago, when Polycrates had not yet become the tyrant of Samos, he was a simple pirate. Polycrates was born in Athens. His father Aeacus was a sea robber and often went to sea in search of prey. When the boy grew up, Eak began to take him with him. The difficult marine life tempered the young man, he became strong and dexterous. It was to him that Aeacus passed on his art of sailing.

When his father died, Polycrates was sixteen years old. For several years he piracy at sea, terrifying the merchant fleets. But this trade did not always give a piece of bread. The ship of Polycrates wandered aimlessly on the sea for months without meeting the desired prey.
Resting after another unsuccessful campaign, Polycrates decided to settle on the shore. He opened a bronze shop in Athens. But trade was only a screen for the enterprising robber. He chose the island of Samos as his main base. In a short time, Polycrates built a powerful fleet, with which he made a daring raid on Egypt. Ruler "Countries of Hapi" Amasis considered it prudent to conclude an alliance with the Greek pirate. Thus, he saved his coastal villages from ruin.

Years passed. The state of Polycrates on the island of Samos grew rich, hundreds of ships made up the tyrant's navy. Polycrates, realizing his power, decided to take a bold step - to attack Miletus, the richest and most fortified city of the ancient world.
On the way to Miletus, his triremes met with the ships of the island of Lesbos, which was an ally of the Milesians. Without fear, Polycrates sent his ship to the flagship of the Lesbos and grappled with it in a boarding battle. With a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, he burst onto the deck of the enemy trireme and set it on fire. Panic broke out among lesbians. They did not expect their best ship to be captured so easily. The pirates caught up with the enemy's triremes and ruthlessly drowned them. Smoke and glow from the burning ships of Lesbos were seen in the besieged Miletus. The spirit of the city's defenders was broken. The Milesians did not have their own navy that could resist Polycrates. After a short siege, the city surrendered and for several days the pirates plundered the city, and when they left, they set it on fire.

Polycrates was feared even by the rulers of such strong states as Persia and Phoenicia. He was nicknamed Happy - for the fact that any of his military campaigns were successful. Egyptian king Amasis envied the glory of Polycrates. But he remembered the raid of pirate hordes on his country and tried to maintain friendly relations with the tyrant. Once he advised Polycrates to sacrifice to the gods the most precious thing he has. Then fortune and fame will never escape the Samian tyrant. Polycrates ordered to be thrown into the sea emerald ring. But a few days later the fishermen caught a fish, in the stomach of which they found a royal ring. Polycrates realized that the gods did not accept his gift. Enraged, he decided to get even with Amasis, who advised him to sacrifice the ring.

The ships of Polycrates went to Egypt, and the tyrant himself indulged in amusements in order to quickly forget about the harsh choice of the gods. But the sailors rebelled. They refused to go to Egypt and turned the ships back.
Polycrates went out to sea on several triremes to meet the Samian fleet. But luck was not on his side. A few hours after the start of the battle, he no longer desired the punishment of the rebels, but his own salvation.

With the remnants of the fleet, Polycrates returned to the island. A cunning plan formed in his head. His warriors brought all the women and children of Samos to the tyrant's largest ship. Polycrates ordered them to be locked up in the hold, and he himself, grabbing a torch, went out on deck.
When the rebel ships entered the harbor, Polycrates waved his torch three times and announced that he would burn the hostages if anyone tried to kill him. Many of the rebels had wives and children on the tyrant's ship and retreated.
But this was only a respite for Polycrates. The rebels very opportunely remembered that quite recently the tyrant insulted the Spartans by intercepting a linen shell - a gift from Amasis. A little later, a beautiful bowl for mixing wine with water, which Sparta sent as a gift, also fell into his hands. the Lydian king Croesus.
The leaders of the rebels went to Sparta and returned with help. A huge army besieged Astypalaian Hill on which the palace of Polycrates was built. But it was not for nothing that the tyrant built the castle for so long - its walls withstood the fierce assaults of the Spartans. Embittered by the failure, the aliens plundered Samos and the surrounding islands and returned home.

The star of Polycrates was setting. Only a fool could now call him Happy. Many of his friends turned away from him. Persia was gaining strength. The fleet of Polycrates prevented her from dominating the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Persian ruler Cambyses sent his entourage to the tyrant Oret, governor of Sardakh. The Persian persuaded Polycrates to plot against Cambyses and come to Sardis to discuss the plan. But there Polycrates was seized right on the pier.
...On a hill near Sardakh, Oret's warriors built a huge wooden cross. Polycrates was crucified on it. For many days and nights, the former tyrant, tormented by heat during the day and cold at night, tormented by thirst and hunger, hung on that cross. To prolong the suffering of the Happy Polycrates, Oret ordered to wet his lips with water.
Many residents of Sardakh and neighboring cities came to see the execution of Polycrates. He did not evoke compassion from anyone - the most famous pirate of the ancient world caused too much grief to people.

This is interesting!

The warships of the Greeks had a ram on their bows, upholstered in copper sheets, with which they pierced the bottom of an enemy ship. The Greeks were the first to build ships with multiple rows of oars. The single-row ship was called uniremoy, two-row - diremoy . The main ship of antiquity is called trireme - three-row vessel. It was invented in the 8th century BC. in Corinth.

Eumel Bosporus

Pirates so annoyed merchant ships that sometimes it was necessary to throw all the military forces of the state against them. Often, the kings of the ancient world themselves stood at the head of the army in order to eradicate piracy.
One of these decisive rulers was Bosporus king Eumel. His state was considered strong and powerful. In the west, the Bosporan lands extend to Feodosia, in the east to Phanagoria. Noble Milesian Archeanact founded in 480 BC city ​​of Panticapaeum which became the capital of the new kingdom. The name of the Greek city was given by the Scythian neighbors, in their language it meant "fish way".

Eumel of Bosporus tried to live in peace and harmony with his neighbors. This was largely due to the fact that he seized power in the state illegally: seeking the throne, he killed all his relatives. To appease the people, Eumel reduced taxes, but this was clearly not enough to justify his atrocities in the eyes of ordinary people. Then he decided to start a war with the pirates, who undermined the economy of the Bosporus kingdom.
Panticapaeum in those years was a major trading center, Bosporan merchants sent ships to Athens, to the southern shores of Pontus. But the local barbarian tribes, who did not want to put up with strangers, attacked ships passing along their shores and plundered mercilessly. The barbarians had entire fleets of boats and ships.

The rulers of the Greek cities on the Colchis coast and in the Crimea, who often suffered from pirate raids, asked Eumel for help. The Bosporus king organized a large sea expedition.
In 306 BC. Eumel's fleet cleared the Tauride coast from pirates from Feodosia to Chersonese. Many pirates were killed, their boats were burned, and villages were razed to the ground. Merchants whose ships sailed along the Crimean coast breathed a sigh of relief. Now it was possible not to tremble for the safety of their goods, sending the ship on a long voyage. But Eumel did not stop there and decided to defeat the pirate settlements on the Colchis coast. They robbed there Achaean and Genioch tribes, they went out to sea on light and maneuverable boats - kamaras. When the Achaeans and Geniokhs returned to their native places, they carried the Kamaras on their shoulders. They lived in the forests, and when it was time to sail, they again carried the boats to the shore.

The leaders of the pirates, frightened by the decisive actions of Eumelus, considered it best to act together. The decisive battle between the Bosporans and the barbarians took place at the city of Gorgippia. The pirates were utterly defeated.
Eumel ruled for only six years, but left a good memory for himself, destroying almost all the pirates in the Black Sea. Eumelus' early death - he contracted malaria and died - prevented him from completing his endeavors.

This is interesting!

As a rule, the ship went to sea for about fifty years, although there were cases when a warship remained in service up to eighty. Amazing durability - if you remember that the ships at that time were wooden.

Caesar's revenge

In the winter of 76 B.C. e. A merchant ship sailed from Nicomedia. His cargo was the usual - wine, olive oil, grain. The captain of the ship hoped to get good money on Rhodes, where the ship was heading. There was only one passenger on the ship, but he paid the captain generously, adding that if the ship reached Rhodes quickly, he would double the price.
The passenger, a young Roman patrician, read books all the time, recited poetry. It seemed that what was happening on deck did not bother him at all. It was the future ruler of Rome Gaius Julius Caesar.

In Illyrian waters, the ship was attacked by pirates. Four high-speed pirate triremes headed to cut across the Nicomedia ship. When they emerged from behind the cape, there was no question of flight. Armed men poured onto the deck. Having descended into the hold and found wine there, they burst into enthusiastic cries. The sailors were treated cruelly - they were tied in pairs, back to back, and thrown overboard. Several people tried to resist and were immediately killed.

When the robbers got to the stern, they were literally dumbfounded. The young Roman, as if nothing had happened, wrote down something on a tablet, and servants knelt in front of him. The patrician's doctor explained to the pirates that it was Caesar.
The name of the Roman meant nothing to the robbers. But they understood one thing - for this person you can get a big ransom. In those days, the robbers preferred not to kill their victims immediately, but to demand gold for them, unless, of course, they had this gold.

The pirates set a ransom for the captive at ten talents. But the haughty Caesar announced to them that his head was worth at least fifty talents. In those days it was a fortune.
The robbers allowed Caesar to send several servants for money, and the patrician himself, along with the doctor, was sent to a secluded island, which was the base for pirate campaigns. So the future ruler of Rome was captured by Illyrian sea robbers. Caesar's pride was hurt. Since childhood, he was not used to enduring humiliation and planned to take cruel revenge on the pirates as soon as he received freedom.

Julius Caesar spent thirty-eight days in captivity. All this time he behaved like a master on the island - he went where he liked and did what he wanted, and no one dared to argue with him. Caesar went to Rhodes school of eloquence by Apollonius Molon, therefore, all the speeches prepared for the philosophers had to be listened to by the robbers. Having seated the pirates in front of him, Caesar called on them in a thunderous voice to restore them in Rome. power of the people's tribunes, spoke of the greatness of his own kind.
If the robbers did not express their admiration loudly enough, Caesar did not hesitate to call them ignoramuses and barbarians who deserved a rope. The pirates patiently demolished everything, waiting for the ship with the promised money to arrive. When Caesar's servants finally returned with the ransom, the pirates breathed a sigh of relief.

Arriving in Miletus, Caesar did not shelve the matter, immediately equipped the ships and returned to the pirate island to get even with the robbers. A holiday was in full swing in the pirate lair. The Illyrians, still not believing that they had become the owners of such huge money, kindled a fire on the shore and feasted. Many robbers had already drunk themselves unconscious and were lying right on the sand.
When the armed Romans led by Caesar began to jump ashore from the ships, the robbers could not believe their eyes. The fight was short. Caesar found treasures on the island that had been looted by robbers over several years.

When the Roman flotilla returned to Miletus, the inhabitants of the city greeted Caesar with delight. The Illyrians had sufficiently battered the merchant fleet of Miletus, the captains were afraid to go to sea without a strong guard. And then Caesar came, who cleared the coastal waters from the Illyrians with one blow.
Caesar ordered the robbers to be crucified on crosses that were dug on the seashore. The Patrician walked slowly around the long row of crosses, looking into the faces of each pirate. Then he stopped and said:
"There, on the island, you laughed at me. Now it's my turn to laugh. You have not yet realized how powerful Rome is. I will do everything so that the Romans are the greatest nation in the world."

A new era was coming when the pirates of the Mediterranean could no longer feel with impunity. They were opposed no longer by individual small states of Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, but by the great and powerful Rome. Caesar kept his word.

This is interesting!

The actions of the rowers on the ship were led by a hortator, and the rowing rhythm was set by a flutist. To tune in to the right rhythm, rowers often sang a working song:

Eya, rowers, let us echo our booming: Hey me!

From uniform shocks, let the ship tremble and rush.

The blue of the sky is smiling - and the sea promises us

Wind inflate our fraught sails ...

Before the start of the battle on the triremes, the mast with the sail was removed and tied to the deck.
Hoplite Warriors , ready to fulfill the order of the navarch, were placed on the catastrome - the upper deck. Catastroma protected the rowers of the top row from shelling. Outside was a platform - a traps. Hoplites transferred from it to the enemy ship during boarding. He also protected the ship's hull during a ramming attack.

Plan of Pompey the Great

Rome was unsettled. Passed daily Senate meetings where they decide what to do. Flotillas of pirates blocked the approaches to the most important cities of the republic. After the end of the Punic Wars and the destruction of Carthage, the robbers felt like masters of the sea. No matter how Carthage was hated by Rome, yet the senators recognized that as long as the city of Hannibal existed, merchants could swim in the Mediterranean Sea calmly.
It was not easy to stop the robbers. Their fleet numbered a thousand ships - it is unlikely that in those days there would have been a state in the Mediterranean Sea that could field more ships. Once the pirates stole even Roman praetors Sextinius and Bellina.

In 67 B.C. Roman senators decided to send the best ships against the pirates. By the proposal Senator Aulus Gabinius, Gnaeus Pompeii, son-in-law of Julius Caesar, became the head of the fleet. For three years he was endowed with dictatorial powers. In any place of the Roman Republic, he could, in case of need, demand troops, money or ships. The entire coastal strip up to 40 kilometers in depth passed into his full power. All officials of Rome and the rulers of subject states were obliged to unquestioningly comply with his requirements,

The troops gathered under Pompey were the most selective parts of Rome. Twenty legions prepared to carry out any order from their commander. Pompey built five hundred ships. He understood that the pirates, who could lurk behind any cape, behind any island, cannot be defeated by force alone. It was necessary to develop a plan. Pompeii divided the Mediterranean and Black Seas into sections, to each of which a fleet must be sent.

A month had passed since the start of the “Pompeian plan”, and the first reports began to arrive in Rome: Mark Pomponius defeated the robbers off the Iberian coast; Plotius Varus cleared Sicily of pirates; Poplius Atinius crushed the resistance of the pirate bases of Sardinia.

Pompey's flying fleet appeared unexpectedly in various parts of the Mediterranean, exactly where his help was needed. The fame of the exploits of Pompey was ahead of the commander, and many pirates, having heard about the approach of the Roman fleet, themselves burned their ships and went to the mountains. Others chose to fight to the end and perish when faced with the might of Rome.

It was later calculated that the Romans destroyed 1,300 Cilician ships in this battle. The dominance of the pirates has come to an end. Pompeii more than justified the confidence of the Roman Senate - he completed the operation in three months instead of three years.

This is interesting!

To this day, information about the giant ships of antiquity has been preserved. Under Demetrius I (306-283 BC), a pentekaidekera was built - a vessel with fifteen rows of oars, under Hieron of Syracuse (269-215 BC) - an icosera - with twenty rows of oars. Ptolemy IV (220-204 BC) launched what is probably the largest ship in the ancient world. It was a tessaracontera, with forty rows of oars. The length of the hull of this monster reached 125 meters, the height of the side was 22 meters. The crew consisted of 4 thousand rowers, 400 sailors and 3 thousand soldiers.

Sextus Pompey

Twenty years after the victory over the pirates, Pompeii went to conquer barbarian Spain. For the time being, luck accompanied the commander, but in one of the battles a skillfully thrown enemy spear pierced Pompey's chest. He fell on the grass, staining it with his blood. The barbarians roared with delight - one of the best commanders of Rome was slain.
The Roman army was threatened with complete annihilation. Then he took command Sextus - son of Pompey. With a dozen of the most experienced warriors, he appeared in the thick of the fighting and sowed fear and death around him. But even the heroism of Sextus was not enough to tip the scales in favor of the Romans. The rest of the army retreated into the mountains.

Three months after the death of Gnaeus Pompey, in Rome, Caesar appeared warlord Karrina. He said that a new danger appeared on the borders of the state. In the mountains of Spain there is a gang of robbers. They plunder the cities of the Roman provinces, they have a large fleet. The troublemakers are led by none other than Sextus Pompey. Dissatisfied with discipline in the army, outcasts and political criminals flock under his banner in thousands. Sextus knows every island, every cape. He and his ships escape from the most ingenious traps. Merchant ships are afraid to leave harbors.

To suppress the rebellion, a legion was sent to Spain, led by Carrina. But the commander never managed to meet with the detachments of Sextus in an open duel. Sextus was alerted each time to the approach of the Romans, and he hid in one of his hiding places. In Rome, Sextus had his mother Mucia and wife Julia. But he was not afraid for their safety -

it was not in the rules of the ancient Romans to take revenge on their enemy by punishing members of his family.

Luck helped Sextus in his campaigns. All new gangs of robbers recognized him as their commander. He kept the entire western Mediterranean at bay. The son of Pompey, the conqueror of pirates, himself became the most dangerous sea robber in the history of the Roman Republic.
As a result of a conspiracy in Rome, Caesar is killed. Power passed into the hands of the triumvirate - Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. The triumvirs constantly squabbled among themselves for power, trying to win over as many like-minded people as possible to their side.

Mark Antony, speaking in the Senate, declared that he could not allow such talented military leaders as Sextus Pompeii to be enemies of Rome. He offered to promise to return to him all titles, personal integrity and his land allotments.
Sextus accepted Rome's terms. During his short military career, he learned to be wise and take advantage of everything. In 43 A.D. e. he became commander of the Roman fleet, and a little later was appointed together with Domitius Ahenobarbus, Commander of the Naval Forces of the Republic.

Sextus' fleet was off Sicily when a messenger arrived from Rome. He reported that army of Brutus and Cassius defeated, and the triumvirs declared that the republic no longer exists. Sextus decided to settle in Sicily and defend the republic. In a short time, he created a new state in Sicily, which lived according to the laws established in republican Rome. Corsica and Sardinia joined the state of Sextus. The fleets of Sextus controlled the western coast of Italy, preventing merchants from delivering their goods to the Eternal City.

Major success Domitia and Sexta began the capture of several fortresses in the Peloponnese. Rome was in a tight circle. Few people managed to penetrate the pirate barriers and bring food to Rome. All sea routes from Africa, Iberia, Rhodes and Miletus were cut by the navarchs of Sextus - Menecrates and Menodorus.
The Cilician tyrant Antipater created his own state in the south of Asia Minor. He immediately found a common language with the people of Sextus, and sometimes they went out to sea to rob ships together.

There was a famine in Rome. The prices of goods became so high that only the richest citizens could buy them. Octavian introduced new taxes to pay off the merchants. The townspeople were dissatisfied and wished for the return of the republic. Dozens of corpses of those who died of starvation floated in the Tiber, they did not have time to bury them. A terrible stench stood over the city, it was said that it would come soon plague - "black death".

The triumvirs began to look for ways to reconcile with the disgraced pirate commander. The mother of Sextus also advised them to do the same. In the end, the meeting was appointed at the Missensky Cape near Naples.
The warriors of Octavian and Antony arrived at the coast early in the morning and pitched tents for their overlords. Toward noon, the ships of Sextus Pompey appeared at the cape. They anchored 40 meters from the shore. The sea was calm, so the negotiations were conducted on neutral territory - the Romans launched rafts that stopped in the middle between the ships and the shore.

The negotiations continued until the evening. The triumvirs recognized the sovereignty of the state of Sextus, promising not to obstruct his people in moving around Italy. In exchange, Sextus undertook to end the naval blockade of Rome, allowing merchant ships and caravans to carry their goods.
Peace with Rome was short-lived. Two years later, Menodorus - navarch Sextus - betrayed his former master, letting Octavian's army pass to Sardinia. In vain did Sextus appeal to the decency of the Romans, who promised to keep peace forever. On capitol hill there was a struggle for power, and such concepts as honesty or pity were not used in it.

Yesterday's friends betrayed Sextus. He still tried to unite significant forces around himself in order to continue the fight against Rome, but ... Rome survived the crisis and again became the greatest state in the Ancient World. Octavian led a broad offensive against the cities of Sextus. His friend and commander Mark Vipsanius Agrippa gathered a large fleet and dreamed of a pitched battle with Sextus himself. Pompey, remembering the lessons of his youth, avoided open battle, and besides, he now had very few ships to pick up the gauntlet thrown by Agrippa.

And yet the Roman naval commander drove Sextus into a trap. His squadron locked up the pirates in the bay between Milami and Navlokh. The Romans outnumbered the pirates in everything - the number of ships, weapons and the number of warriors on board. They threw huge rocks and Molotov cocktails at the pirates. They connected their ships with a long chain, and not a single ship of Sextus could break through to the exit from the bay. Pompey had 180 ships against 420 Roman ones, and only 17 remained afloat. Sextus himself took the helm and ruled the ship - he found a loophole near the shore, and in shallow water the remnants of his fleet escaped from the bay.

Agrippa returned to Rome in triumph. He was crowned with gold

"rostral" crown. Such an award was usually given to the chief of the fleet for an outstanding victory, and to a simple sailor for the first jump aboard an enemy ship. Sextus' days were numbered. Now he - an outcast - wandered through the cities of the Mediterranean in search of refuge. No one gave him shelter, fearing the wrath of Rome. Sextus died in Miletus. He was treacherously betrayed by the local ruler Titius, whom Sextus had once saved from death.

Political intrigues in Rome itself reached their apogee. Octavian persistently paved the way to the Roman throne. He won the favor of the soldiers of Lepidus and announced the dissolution of the triumvirate. Lepidus was sent into exile, and Octavian took care of his son-in-law Anthony.
Mark Antony at this time settled in Alexandria, married Cleopatra and was of little interest to the affairs of Rome itself. Octavian declared war on Antony and sent a fleet under the command of Agrippa against him.

The most significant naval battle of the ancient world took place on September 2, 31 BC. at Cape Shares. Antony, despite the superiority in strength, yielded, and the flight of the Egyptian ships hastened the rout of his fleet.

The following year, Egypt became a Roman province, and

Octavian proclaimed himself Emperor Augustus- the ruler of the largest and most powerful state in the world. Now Rome, until its burning by the barbarians five centuries later, no longer allowed pirates to interfere with the normal life of rulers and nobility.
Of course, the sea robbers still plowed the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and attacked single ships and even small fleets, but they were not destined to become the rulers of the sea again.