When many people think of pirates, they think of the Caribbean. But the roots of piracy go back into antiquity, and there were pirates in the Mediterranean many centuries before they pillaged the Caribbean.

As early as the sixth to fifth century B.C., the island of Cythera (alternately spelled Kythira, Kythera, and Kithira) was a favored location for piracy. Chilon of Sparta, a sixth-century B.C. philosopher, was said to have claimed "it would be better for Sparta that Cythera should be sunk in the sea."[1] During the Peloponnesian War, in the fifth century B.C., Sparta established a garrison at Cythera "to prevent its occupation by pirates, and to give security to merchantmen coming from Libya and Egypt."[2] In the centuries that followed, Crete and Cilicia became havens for pirates.[3] With Crete onl...

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