CHAPTER ONE
SCOURGE OF THE SEAS
P
irates have been around since the waterways
of the world were first used for commerce.
The earliest known historical documents to
mention pirates describe a group known as the
Sea Peoples, who terrorized the Mediterranean Sea around
1200 BCE. Ancient texts say that these pirates invaded eastern
Anatolia (in what became modern-day Turkey), Syria, Egypt,
and other lands bordering the Mediterranean.
THE PIRATE AND THE EMPEROR
Less than one thousand years later, in the 300s BCE, a fearless
pirate known as Diomedes challenged Alexander the Great, one
of the ancient world’s most powerful leaders. Alexander’s vast
empire included the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where pirates
attacked merchant ships loaded with cargo.
One legend says that when Diomedes was brought before
Alexander to face punishment, everyone expected Alexander to
sentence Diomedes to death. Instead, the emperor demanded
to know what gave Diomedes the right to sail the seas, taking
things that were not rightly his.
Diomedes responded defiantly, by asking the emperor what
gave him the right to invade territory and take lands that did
not belong to him. Diomedes argued that because he used
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