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Piracy in the Early Hellenistic Period: a Career Open to Talents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Janice J. Gabbert
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Extract

Pirates were frequently employed by the Diadochoi and the Epigonoi of Alexander as an auxiliary military or naval force, and some examples are given below. Unfortunately, the surviving evidence does not allow us to do more than make the general statement. The evidence for piratical activity is largely in the form of personal anecdotes, and the evidence for the nature of Hellenistic military and naval establishments is nothing more than a record of a few persons and/or positions. The authors of our scant literary sources, especially those who wrote many generations after the events which they describe, were not attempting to analyse the role of pirates for posterity, thus they often use the word ‘pirate’ with a notable lack of precision, if they use it at all. Nevertheless, a review of the existing evidence suggests a rather remarkable degree of social and occupational mobility in the third century B.C.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , October 1986 , pp. 156 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

Notes

1. Polyainos 2.35. There is no indication of date, but Book 2 seems to pertain to men of the fourth century, B.C.

2. Polyainos 5.19.

3. Tarn, W. W., Antigonus Gonatas (Oxford, 1913), p. 70, n. 92Google Scholar.

4. Frontinus 3.2.11 and Polyainos 5.25 contain two separate anecdotes of his activity in Asia and against Ptolemy. This may be the same Timarchos who, in collaboration with ‘Ptolemy the Son’ wrested Miletos and Ephesos from Ptolemaic control ca. 259/8 (Launey, M., Recherches sur les Armées Hellenistiques, 2 vols., Bibl. des Ecoles Francaises d'Athenes e de Rome, vol. 169, Paris, 1950, i. 181)Google Scholar.

5. Newell, Edward T., Miscellanea Numismatica: Cyrene to India, in Numismatic Notes and Monographs (New York: The American Numismatic Society, 1938), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

6. Pausanias 4.5.4 and Polyainos 2.29.2.

7. Polyainos 4.6.18. The event is referred to in Prologue 25 of Trogus, but not mentioned by Justin. The Aitolian pirates were probably mercenaries who, when unemployed, made their living by brigandage. Melatas is not otherwise known.

8. Plutarch, Pyrrhos 29.6, narration of the Argive campaign follows. Justin 25.5 also refers to events at Argos, in less detail.

9. Tarn, , Antigonus Gonatas (above, n. 3), pp. 172 and 272Google Scholar, also in CAH VII, pp. 107 and 214; Ormerod, H. A., Piracy in the Ancient World (London, 1924), pp. 123–24Google Scholar; Ziebarth, Erich, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Seeraubs und Seehandels im alten Griechenland (Hamburg, 1929), p. 21Google Scholar; Walbank, F. W., ‘Sea-power and the Antigonids’, in Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Heritage, Ed. Adams, W. Lindsay and Borza, Eugene N. (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982), p. 220Google Scholar.

10. van Wilamowitz-Moellendroff, Ulrich, Antigonos von Karystos (Philologische Untersuchungen, Heft 4, Berlin, 1881), p. 213Google Scholar, and Fellman, Wilhelm, Antigonos Gonatas: König der Makedonen und die Griechischen Staaten. (Diss., Wurzburg, 1930), p. 41Google Scholar.

11. Bengtson, H., Die Strategie in der hellenistischen Zeit. 3 Vols. (Munich, 1937–1952), ii. 350Google Scholar; Tarn, , Antigonus Gonatas (above, n. 3), p. 286Google Scholar; and Will, Edouard, Histoire politique du monde hellenistique (323–30 av. J.-C). 2 vols. (Nancy, 1966, 2nd Ed. 1979), i. 285Google Scholar.

12. Griffith, G. T., The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World (Cambridge, 1935), p. 67Google Scholar.

13. , Plut., Mor. 251a and 253aGoogle Scholar; Justin, , Epit. 26.1Google Scholar.

14. Trogus, , Prologue 26Google Scholar; Suidas s.v. Euphorion; , Plut., Aratus 17.2Google Scholar.

15. Ormerod (above, n. 9), p. 126; Griffith (above, n. 12), p. 78. For examples, see Polyainos 4.6.17, Pausanias 1.16, 10.19.5–10.23.14, Justin 25.1, Plut, . Aratos 38.4Google Scholar.

16. SEG 24.154, published by Petrakos, B. Ch., ‘neai pegai peri tou Chremonideiou polemou’, Arch. Delt. 22A (1967), 38–52Google Scholar.

17. Lines 21–3, the relevant passage reads, ἐκόλασε δέ καì τοùς καϑϑηγουμέγου ςεί ςτή νχώρα νοīς πειραταīς λαβẁν καì ώξετάσας αύτοùς ðντας έκ τńς πόλεως άξίως ών ðπραττον ‘he Punished those who were from the city, who led the pirates into the countryside; seizing and questioning them, as their actions deserved’).

18. Heinen, Heinz, Untersuchungen zur hellenistischen geschichte des 3.Jahrhunderts v. Chr. in Historia Einzelschriften, heft 20 (Wiesbaden, 1972), p. 157Google Scholar.

19. Walbank (above, n 9), p. 219.

20. Syll. 3 454, lines 12–13,… πολέμον ϒενομένου τοū πεεì' A/λέξανδρον καì πειρατικών έκπλεόντων έκ τοũ 'Επιλιμνίου …

21. Tarn, , Antigonus Gonatas (above, n. 3), p. 356Google Scholar.

22. Ziebarth (above, n 9), p. 25.

23. Paus. 3.23.6; Strabo 8.368; Steph. Byz. s.v. Epidauros and Limnaia; also I.G. V, 1, 931 for an inscription found at the site identified as Epidauros Limera (an arbitration of the second century B.C.).

24. Will (above, n. 11), p. 296; Flacelière, R.Les Aitoliens à Delphes. Contribution à I'histoire de la Grèce centrale au IIIe siecle au. J.C. Bibl. des Ec. franc. d'Athenes et de Rome CXLIII. (Paris, 1937), pp. 202–4Google Scholar; Ormerod (above, n. 9), pp. 135ff, 141; for a summary of the epigraphical evidence on Aitolian piracy, see Wilhelm, Adolf, ‘Attische Urkunden, III’, in Sitzungberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien (Bd. 202, Abh. 5, 1925), 57ffGoogle Scholar; Polybios on the Aitolians, e.g., 4.3.

25. Larsen, J. A. O., Greek Federal States (Oxford, 1968), p. 211Google Scholar.