Pirates In The Age Of Roman Republic

About in the second millennium BC, piracy came into existence on the history. In ancient Rome, piracy had been accompanied by the development of its history, and especially rampant in the period of the Roman Republic. This article mainly discusses the development of the pirates in the Roman Republic and the long-lasting struggle between Rome and pirates, and also analyses the role of the pirates as the otherness of Rome in the political struggles.In the pre-Republic, piracy had undergone a change from just a mode of making a living endowed by the Mediterranean at first to a violent behavior that threatens the people's living and normal commercial trade at last; The images of pirates had also been transformed from the people's hero originally to the villain of the sea later.Until the period of the Roman Republic, pirates were called the 'Enemies of all mankind', which is entirely to the negative to the humans.In the Early and Mid Republic, the places of pirates gathering were more focused. In this period, the chief pirates were the Tyrrhenians, the Cretans, the Ligurians and the Illyrians. Moreover, piracy also became more complex. Piracy was often associated with war, foreign mercenaries and the slave trade. At the same time, Rome and its allies also struggled against pirates constantly.In the Late Republic, pirates were most rampant. Pirates became a serious threat to Rome's politics and economy, what were the reasons? One was the result of its own long-term growth, on the other hand, it was primarily due to the internal problems of Rome which offered a good opportunity for pirates. When the pirates were a real threat to the safety of Rome itself, they were inevitebly supressed.It is worth noting that, when Rome acted as 'protector of the Mediterranean' and suppressed the pirate, she also used the 'pirate', an effectivetool to blacken his opponents in order to establish her own image of justice and civilization.In the chaos of the internal political environment in the Late Republic, using 'pirate' against political opponents was also an effective way.