Dumb question here, but I have to ask

Were there pirates in the ancient world?

Yes, very much so. In fact, they were such a big deal that it took the entire Roman navy on a huge expedition led by Pompey Magnus to kill them all. He got a triumph for this if I remember correctly.

There's also the famous Caesar and Pirates story.

Well now you got me interested, user. So tell me, who exactly were these annoying pirates which buggered the hell out of Rome?

Yes. Greek Pirates were a well-known thing from at least 1500 BC and probably before that as well.

Thieves and highwaymen lying in wait of goods being taken between cities and trading routes have been a thing since trade began, operating on the sea is not much different if you can get a few well-outfitted boats

Nigger have you never read Asterix?

The fuck is Asterix, sorry I'm an Americunt, I don't read comics from another country.

Yeah, Thucydides noted at the beginning of his History that it was considered a noble way of life.

The ones Pompey smashed were the Cilician pirates. Their stronholds were mostly in Cilicia (SE Anatolia near the Syrian border), but they were a multi-ethnic "organization"

>The fuck is Asterix

If the Iliad and the Odyssey are to be believed, traveling armies were basically little more than wandering pirates and bandits until they reached their destination (and then they'd just loot the shit out of their destination).

It was probably the only way to survive while on the move on ze ocean.

>the fuck is asterix

Undoubtedly. As I understand it, until supply depots became a widespread thing, it was pretty standard for soldiers to survive on "foraging" that included looting the countryside.

Why was piracy considered noble back then?

What do you mean multi-ethnic organization? And what ethnicities were present in SE Anatolia at the time?

Yep. It was standard practice for a very, very long time. That's why the US constitution states that citizens cannot be compelled to quarter soldiers.

>What do you mean multi-ethnic organization?
Meaning that it wasn't Cilicians exclusively that did it, pretty much anyone joined up with them. They aren't to be confused with say Vikings, who were an homogeneous group where raiding was part of their culture.
>what ethnicities were present in SE Anatolia at the time?
Mostly native Anatolians (Hittites, other Indo-European peoples), with large Greek minorities.

Caesar was abducted and ransomed by pirates in his youth. He was witty and joked with them to the point where they just let him chill out with them but he promised that when he was released he would bring an army back and kill every single one of them. They thought he was joking.

He stayed true to his word.

>the fuck is asterix
Nothing on Veeky Forums really made me mad until now

This is from the first chapter of his history when he is giving a rough overview of the history of the Hellenic world leading up to the outbreak of the war.

"For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communication by sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected by walls, and consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed, this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory. An illustration of this is furnished by the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successful marauder, and by the question we find the old poets everywhere representing the people as asking of voyagers- "Are they pirates?"- as if those who are asked the question would have no idea of disclaiming the imputation, or their interrogators of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed also by land."

I suspect it was just because it was at a time when sedentary life was one way of life amongst many others which makes sense when you take in the difficulty of the Greek geography which is not particularly open to large scale farming. So Villages which didnt have very strong fortifications or the means to field a viable fighting force put it at a disadvantaged when compared to a group of roaming nomads who didn't have the burdens that come with sedentary life.

Get out, Europoors. Veeky Forums is American territory.

A pirate is literally just a bandit on the sea, they've likely existed as long as there has been seaborne trade between settlements, so at least 9000 years.

I'm not one of those guys, but it was translated and released in the US and is considered something of a cult classic.

It's not just Europoors, Asterix is known globally and has been translated to over 100 languages. It's like if you said you don't know what Monty Python is because you're not British.

Yes. Vikings are one example that come to mind.

>cult classic
Well that's the thing. A cult classic is only popular with a small number of people.

It's an obscure children's comic that hasn't been relevant for decades. I seriously doubt more than 10% of the US population has ever read it, if that.
Although I do like Monty Python I doubt that most Americans have heard of the group. The US media industry is huge. It's rare for modern European media to gain any amount of popularity here.

>Asterix
>obscure
This better be bait

Obscure in the US.
If you didn't notice, the picture you posted is not in English. Nutella is another thing that only recently got noticed in the US. A few years ago nobody here had ever heard of it.

Well it's pretty much the most read comic in the history of the planet so it's the opposite of obscure.

>Well it's pretty much the most read comic in the history of the planet
That would be Garfield.

>Well that's the thing. A cult classic is only popular with a small number of people.

Yeah. I'm not one of those guys that was giving you shit about it. I do think it's a bit odd (in the sense of being statistically improbable), but not inconceivable that someone wouldn't have heard of it.

Yes. They were mostly poor villagers turning into pirates cus not enough good land to farm etc.

COME ON AMERICUNT!
I know you're fucking dumb but you must atleast know what fucking google is

Makes me wonder what was the decision process for whether they'd go for piracy or banditry. Piracy needs a boat, sailing knowledge and good trade routes to plunder, so it must have been lucrative compared to just raiding caravans.

Banditry was for people ex-military or just people in living inland. In piracy people used to be fisherman or at least live near the coast. So they already have boats and sailing knowledge. One writers theorize that the reason piracy was a lot in ancient world is that those people keep seeing lots of trade ships full of goods passing nearby of them while they were barely surviving. Rome solved the problem with 2 way. Gave farmable lands to them and killing them. Kinda like carrot and whip tactic. And it did work. Also considering rome didnt had proper fleet up until punic war helped piracy.

Yes. Mediterranean piracy was big thing until Pompey cracked down on them.

In 268 AD, during the Crisis of the Third Century when the Roman Empire was in full meltdown, a massive pirate fleet of Goths and Heruli sailed from the north coast of the Black Sea down through the totally undefended Straits of Mamara. They proceeded to then sack Athens. With no Roman soldiers stationed in the interior of the army at this time the locals had to band together to try and fight them off in a kind of Seven Samurai situation, an event that was apparently recounted by the man who had been one of the leading nobles of the city at the time, Publius Herennius Dexippus, who wrote a history of the fight. The barbarian tribes would also sack Byzantium, Chrysopolis, Lemnos, Scyros, Sparta, Corinth and Argos in the same voyage.

Im American and I know Asterix. Youre just a dumb piece of shit. I mean come on dude, hurr was here pirates in ancient times??

kill yourself my man

Ask a local honky to shoot you.