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You think the first pirates were those of the Caribbean? I’m telling you, piracy is as old as seafaring.
The Phoenicians – those great Mediterranean traders – they knew about pirates.
The Romans, too, they were plagued by them. Theory has it that’s how the cult of Mithras spread from Thrace and Macedonia to Rome.
And what about the Sea People, those renegades who brought down the Bronze Age civilization? Though maybe they weren’t actual pirates.
74 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Pirate
crispina kemp 
Interesting thoughts to ponder upon
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Thanks, Sadje. And I didn’t even mention in the South China Sea 🙂
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Pirates, like thieves, have existed for as long as humans have learned to sail I think.
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It’s in human nature. And having read several chimp studies, I’d say it’s a primate trait
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Indeed
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🙂
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It’s true. We think pirates are a relatively recent thing. Nay, I say… Nay! And you have given us something to ponder!
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Inspiration for a silly rhyme deserted me. Had to fall back on history
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Well I, for one, enjoyed it. Doesn’t always have to be a poem, yanno!
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Some things can’t be poetrified!
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Right!
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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Caesar led a campaign against pirates.
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That’s true. They used to hole up along the Adriatic coast. A bit too close for comfort.
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Sicily and its neighboring islands had been raided frequently. Over 1 million Europeans were captured by the Barbary Pirates between 1400-1800AD and sold into African and Arabian Slavery.
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Ireland and Cornwall were also targeted by Barbary Pirates, though obviously the Mediterranean coasts were the worst hit
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Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Mainwaring, M.P., himself at one time a pirate, wrote an insightful treatise on how to suppress piracy in 1618, decades before Capt. Morgan plundered Panama and a century before the likes of Calico Jack Rackam and Blackbeard.
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Yea, I’d forgotten you taught a course on piracy. Back in the day some pirates were licenced by the government. Would that be how Mainwaring got involved?
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He was a pirate that turned legit, which means the Crown decided it was safer to have him on their side!
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Privateers!
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Piracy may not be the oldest profession, but I bet it is close by.
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Perhaps it could be the oldest. Humans were on the sea very early in their expansion out of Africa. Though whether they were shipping anything worth stealing…?
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