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Julius Caesar taken captive by Cilician pirates (Henri De Montaut, 1865). Piracy in the ancient Mediterranean dates back at least as far as the Bronze Age.The roots of the word "piracy" come from the ancient Greek πειράομαι, or peiráomai, meaning "attempt" (i.e., of something illegal for personal gain).
Civil wars had devastated the land, and much of the population turned to piracy. Crete became a major haven for pirates, with its strategic position in the midst of the Mediterranean and because it did not fall under the control of any of the Mediterranean empires. Cilicia was the other major pirate refuge.
Two styles of scimitars: an Egyptian shamshir (left) and an Ottoman kilij (right). A scimitar (/ ˈ s ɪ m ɪ t ər / or / ˈ s ɪ m ɪ t ɑːr /) [1] is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade [2] [3] [4] of about 76.2 to 91.44cm (30 to 36 inches) associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures.
The mystique of pirates is partly related to attributes of real pirates. For example, they wore earrings in hopes that the gold or silver would be used to pay for a decent burial when they died. They also wore earrings for superstitious reasons, believing the precious metals had magical healing powers. [37]
Another form of treatment existed to help expel evil spirits from the body of a patient, known as trephining. Trephining was a means of treating epilepsy by opening a hole in the skull through drilling or cutting. It was believed that any evil spirit or evil air would flow out of the body through the hole and leave the patient in peace. [55]
While exploring a 500-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sweden, divers discovered “surprising” cargo and weapons that may have helped repel pirates.
In a pirate stronghold on the lush eastern shore of Madagascar, the child of a native-born sorceress and a roving buccaneer unites warring kingdoms, fends off a tyrant from the mountains and ...
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, or simply A General History of the Pyrates, is a 1724 book published in Britain containing biographies of contemporary pirates, [1] which was influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates.