The Mediterranean Pirates In Roman Republic

There are many records about pirates in the ancient literature.The history of pirates can be trace back to initiation of going to sea,and still exists till today.Pirates and piracies have existed all the time throughout the history,and thus we cannot ignore its existence.In the ancient Mediterranean,pirates accompanied the historical development of this area.In terms of ancient Rome,the piracy was throughout all stages of its history development and almost throughout the entire Mediterranean.It can be said that piracy has become an important component of the Roman history.The thesis is consisted of introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction mainly introduces the research status of domestic and overseas scholars in this topic,and its study significance.The first part of main body briefly introduces Mediterranean pirate status before Roman republic that piracy shifted from a way of life in the beginning into a threat to people’s normal lives and commercial trade.Since then,pirates image shifted from the admired heroes into sea villains.The second part of main body mainly introduces the pirates and piracy of Rome republic.In the early and middle Rome republic,according to pirates activity areas,pirates can be divided into Illyrian pirates,Cilician pirates,Tyrrhenian pirates,Cretan pirates and Liguria pirates.The piracies in this period were also more complex.Pirates participated in wars,robbed people for slave trade and looted ports and cities,posing a severe threat to the politics and economy of Roman.The reasons of pirate going wild could be three,first,Rome extended its land,slavery developed in a large scale,contradiction of classes became seriously,many poor people joined in pirate groups.Second,the geological environment supplied convenient for pirates’ activities.Third,Rome extend its domination,particularly after three times Bella punica,Rome finally conquered the maritime strong country—Carthage.Hence,Phenician began to revenge.They cooperated with Greek,their previous competitors,to build an alliance that aimed at destroying Rome’s shipment by pirate activities.The third part of main body mainly introduces fights and crack down of Roman and its allies against pirates through legislation and force.As the extension of republic pirate issue,it refers to the pirate situation during imperial period.The fourth part of main body elaborates the political and diplomatic connection between Roman and pirates.In Roman republic,Roman used the name of fighting“ pirates ” to rationalize its external expansion in the process of conquering and dominating the Mediterranean.In addition,in the late Roman republic,“pirates”were a political mean against political opponent in the internal political struggle of the Roman republic.The conclusion of the thesis analyzes and summarizes pirates and piracy of Roman republic,and then refines and sublimates substance of content.The history of pirates and piracies,which is just one facet of the numerous and complicated history of Rome,maybe is not the most important but,in this aspect will enrich the history of ancient Rome in depth.