Rome's war of supremacy with Carthage ended in a Roman victory, but soon a new enemy emerged: powerful pirates flying skull flags!
In 146 BC, a tidal wave of Roman troops flooded into the city of Carthage, capturing the fortress that had controlled most of the Mediterranean. In the sunset, several Roman commanders looked at the smoke in the city and the vast territory in the distance, and could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, the 117-year-long bloody war between the Romans and the Phoenicians finally ended with the victory of the Roman army! The victory of the war promoted the development of commerce, the ancient Roman commercial center of Ostia became busier, and a large number of peoples enslaved by the Roman Empire paid tribute such as food, grain, timber, livestock, diamonds, pearls, gold, ivory, and spices were continuously transported from here to the provinces.
The Roman nobles disassembled and loaded the luxurious villas of ancient Greece and the precious relics of Egypt onto ships and transported them to their territories from here. The Romans set out from the port of Ostia and sailed to the Mediterranean coast to plunder all the wealth they could get. While the Romans were immersed in the midst of the Taiping Dynasty, some captains frequently reported to the nobles of the Senate that they were under threat from pirates! The pirates were fierce and brutal, robbing merchant ships, taking rich merchants hostage for ransom, and threatening to attack some port cities to blackmail the Romans. Pirates also kill innocent people and abuse women, and noble ladies and ladies are not spared.
The Senate was so angry that some people dared to challenge the mighty Roman Empire! They sent troops to round up, but always found nothing, and the news of the shipwrecks of merchant ships continued, and the prosperous port of Ostia became depressed and snubbed. At the same time, due to the soaring price of food, the civilians rioted again and again due to hunger, which seriously threatened the security of the empire. The Romans realized they had made the mistake of believing that the enemies at sea would disappear forever after crushing the Carthaginians. In fact, the wealth transported by sea was coveted by pirates, who united, with the support and patronage of the king of the kingdom of Pontus, who had a powerful navy, rapidly expanded the number of ships, hoisted the skull flag symbolizing death, blocked the main sea passages of the Mediterranean, and wantonly attacked and plundered the Roman fleet.
In 67 BC, the Roman Senate appointed the famous military commander Pompey to encircle and suppress pirates. The able Pompey found the pirates difficult to deal with and asked him to be given three years to complete the mission. He built 500 sail and paddle boats, which were light and fast, and he also assembled a force of 12,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry to eliminate pirate strongholds along the coast, hunting for fighters on land and water. Finally, he baited a large ship full of treasures and hooked the pirates. The fighting was fierce, the pirates suffered heavy casualties, and the pirates in the western Mediterranean were basically eliminated. Pompey, in a fit of rage, marched eastward towards the area where piracy was rampant in Chirizia. The arrogant pirates fought a decisive battle with the Roman army in the waters near Coracci. On this day, the waves were turbulent and the killing sound was tremendous. In the face of the newly formed Roman fleet, the pirates were dumbfounded, and the huge and clumsy warships of the past were gone, and the clippers rushed the pirates to pieces. In this battle, the pirates lost 1300 ships, 20,000 pirates were captured, and 10,000 were killed, and the Romans achieved an unprecedented victory.
Pompey ordered the execution of hundreds of pirate leaders and relocated the rest to the deserted lands of the eastern Mediterranean to make a living. The victory of the Romans made some weak pirates feel frightened and surrendered, recognizing the supremacy of the Romans in the Mediterranean. However, the threat of piracy was not eliminated, but only moved from the Mediterranean to the remote areas of the Roman Empire. These pirates were instigated and supported by some regional lords. The queen of the Kingdom of Illyria, who lived on the Adriatic coast, arrogantly said to the Roman envoys: "I do not forbid my subjects to benefit from the sea". This hint led a large number of Illyrians to attack Roman merchant ships in small boats. At the same time, punic pirates and Greek pirates also stirred up trouble, stirring up the Panic of the Romans.
In March 44 BC, the dictator Caesar was stabbed to death, causing a power struggle within the Roman Empire, which undoubtedly gave the pirates a favorable opportunity. Pirates of all size seemed to burst out of the seabed, hanging skull flags and crisscrossing the sea. Among them, the most famous and powerful pirate leader was Pompey's youngest son, Xekster Pompey. Pompey jr. skillfully exploited his father's tolerance to re-summon a large number of Chiriqia pirates and their descendants exiled to the barren lands, and accepted a large number of escaped slaves to form a powerful pirate fleet. They fought several beautiful encounters, obtained a large amount of treasure, became famous on the Mediterranean coast, and occupied Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, blocking the sea passage to Rome, and becoming the most threatening opponent of the Roman Empire's maritime hegemony.
After several battles, the Romans could not do anything about Pompey the Younger, so Octavian, the Roman Emperor and heir of Julius Caesar, had to compromise with the pirates. He sent men to negotiate with Pompey the Younger, and in 38 BC signed the famous Treaty of Misia, which recognized Pompey the Younger's ownership of all the lands he had occupied, granted pardons to Pompey the Younger and all his pirates, and recognized his status as a freedman, while Pompey the Younger promised no more escaped slaves as pirates and regularly supplied wheat to Rome. This treaty made Pompey the Younger the hegemon of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Peloponnese, establishing a power that could compete with the mighty Rome.
At first, the two sides were at peace, but gradually Pompey's ambitions swelled, he was not willing to submit to Rome, and began to secretly recruit troops and expand the territory, his pirate ships began to plunder ships off the coast of Italy, his pirate camp accepted a large number of escaped slaves, and he made more and more demanding demands on the Roman Empire. Octavian and his generals could not stand pompey's arrogance and decided to use force to deal with the pirates, and they appointed the Roman general Agriba as commander of the fleet, forming a powerful navy ready to fight Pompey the Younger.
In 36 BC, the Roman fleet and the pirate fleet of Pompey Jr. fought a decisive battle in the northeast corner of Sicily. Although the two sides were not much different in strength, the scheming Agriba took advantage of the pirates' war-weariness weakness and shouted to the pirates that if they surrendered, they would remain free people without any action, and would be accepted into the Roman army. The trick worked so well that the pirates threw their weapons into the sea and surrendered to the Roman army. As a result, hundreds of warships fell to the side of the Romans, the pirates were defeated, and only 17 ships escaped.
Pompey Jr. was so frustrated that he never expected his troops to be so vulnerable. On their way out, many former slaves, seduced by the temptations of the freedmen, killed the pirate leaders, turned the bow of their ships, and raised white flags to the Roman army. Only pompey the younger and a few of his cronies fled for their lives deep into the sea. Finally, he lurked in Asia Minor, preparing to spend the rest of his life lurking with a large number of treasures. Unfortunately, he was recognized and tipped off, and the Romans captured him and brutally executed him.
However, the pirates who surrendered did not get their wish. Shortly after the surrender, Octavian, fearing that he would be left with a problem, secretly ordered all the more than 30,000 pirates to be arrested, some of which were returned to the original slave owners, so that they could work in shackles and become slaves again; all the pirates who could not determine their masters were killed. The pirates regretted it before their execution, shouting the name of Little Pompey and walking to the execution ground in tears. Since then, in the Mediterranean, the number of pirates who pose a powerful threat to the Romans has decreased, and although there are still pirate harassments, the Romans still hold hegemony at sea, and a war for hegemony finally ends with the victory of the Romans.