Pompey's campaign against the pirates

Piracy in the Mediterranean became a large-scale problem. A large network of pirates coordinated operations over wide areas with large fleets. According to Cassius Dio, many years of war contributed to this. Many war fugitives joined them. Pirates were more difficult to catch or break up than bandits. The pirates pillaged coastal fields and towns. Rome was affected through shortages of imports and the supply of grains, but the Romans did not pay proper attention to the problem. They sent out fleets when ‘they were stirred by individual reports’ and these did not achieve anything. Cassius Dio wrote that these operations caused greater distress for Rome's allies. It was thought that a war against the pirates would be big and expensive and that it was impossible to attack all the pirates at once or to drive them back everywhere. As not much was done against them, some towns were turned into pirate winter quarters and raids further inland were carried out. Many pirates settled on land in various places and relied on an informal network of mutual assistance. Towns in Italy were also attacked, including Ostia, the port of Rome: ships were burnt and there was pillaging. The pirates seized important Romans and demanded large ransoms.

Cilicia had been a haven for pirates for a long time. It was divided into two parts, Cilicia Trachaea (Rugged Cilicia), a mountain area in the west, and Cilicia Pedias (flat Cilicia, in the east) by the Limonlu River. The first Roman campaign against the pirates was led by Marcus Antonius Orator in 102 BC. Parts of Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory. Only a small part of that area became a Roman province. Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus was given the command of fighting piracy in Cilicia in 78–74 BC. He won several naval victories off Cilicia and occupied the coasts of nearby Lycia and Pamphylia. He received his agnomen of Isaurus because he defeated the Isauri who lived in the core of the Taurus Mountains, which bordered on Cilicia. He incorporated Isauria into the province of Cilicia Pedias. However, much of Cilicia Paedia belonged to the kingdom of Armenia. Cilicia Trachea was still under the control of the pirates.

In 67 BC, three years after Pompey's consulship, the plebeian tribune Aulus Gabinius proposed a law (Lex Gabinia) for choosing "...from among the ex-consuls a commander with full power against all the pirates". He was to have dominion over the waters of the entire Mediterranean and up to fifty miles inland for three years. He was to be empowered to pick fifteen lieutenants from the senate and assign specific areas to them. He was allowed to have 200 ships, levy as many soldiers and oarsmen as he needed and collect as much money from the tax collectors and the public treasuries as he wished. The use of treasury in the plural might suggest power to raise funds from treasures of the allied Mediterranean states as well. Such sweeping powers were not a problem because comparable extraordinary powers given to Marcus Antonius Creticus to fight piracy in Crete in 74 BC provided a precedent. The optimates in the Senate remained suspicious of Pompey—this seemed yet another extraordinary appointment. Cassius Dio claimed that Gabinius "had either been prompted by Pompey or wished in any case to do him a favour … and … He did not directly utter Pompey's name, but it was easy to see that if once the populace should hear of any such proposition, they would choose him." Plutarch described Gabinius as one of Pompey's intimates and claimed that he "drew up a law which gave him, not an admiralty, but an out-and‑out monarchy and irresponsible power over all men". Cassius Dio wrote that Gabinius’ bill was supported by everybody except the senate, which preferred the ravages of pirates rather than giving Pompey such great powers. The senators nearly killed Pompey. This outraged the people, who set upon the senators. They all ran away, except for the consul Gaius Piso, who was arrested. Gabinius had him freed. The optimates tried to persuade the other nine plebeian tribunes to oppose the bill. Only two, Trebellius and Roscius, agreed, but they were unable to do so. Pompey tried to appear as if he was forced to accept the command because of the jealousy that would be caused if he would lay claim to the post and the glory that came with it. Cassius Dio commented that Pompey was "always in the habit of pretending as far as possible not to desire the things he really wished". Trebellius tried to speak against the bill, but was not allowed to speak. Gabinius postponed the vote and introduced a motion to remove him from the tribunate, which passed. Roscius did not dare to speak, but suggested with a gesture that two commanders should be chosen. The people booed him loudly. The law was passed and the senate ratified it reluctantly.

Plutarch did not mention Pompey being nearly killed. He gave details of the acrimony of the speeches against Pompey. One of the senators proposed that Pompey should be given a colleague. Only Caesar supported the law and in Plutarch's view he did so "not because he cared in the least for Pompey, but because from the outset he sought to ingratiate himself with the people and win their support". In his account the people did not attack the senators. Instead they shouted loudly. The assembly was dissolved. On the day of the vote Pompey withdrew to the countryside. The Lex Gabinia was passed. Pompey extracted further concessions and received 500 ships, 120,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and twenty-four lieutenants. With the prospect of a campaign against the pirates the prices of provisions fell. Pompey divided the sea and the coast into thirteen districts, each with a commander with his own forces.

Appian gave the same number of infantry and cavalry, but the number of ships was 270. The lieutenants were twenty-five. He listed them and their areas of command as follows: Tiberius Nero and Manlius Torquatus: in command of Hispania and the Straits of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar); Marcus Pomponius: Gaul and Liguria; Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus and Publius Atilius: Africa, Sardinia, Corsica; Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus: Italy; Plotius Varus and Terentius Varro: Sicily and the Adriatic Sea as far as Acarnania; Lucius Sisenna: the Peloponnese, Attica, Euboea, Thessaly, Macedon, and Boeotia (mainland Greece); Lucius Lollius: the Greek islands, the Aegean sea, and the Hellespont; Publius Piso: Bithynia (the west of the northern coast of modern Turkey), Thrace (eastern Bulgaria), the Propontis (the Sea of Marmara) and the mouth of the Euxine (the Black Sea); Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Iunior: Lycia, Pamphylia (both on the south coast of modern Turkey), Cyprus, and Phoenicia (Lebanon). Pompey made a tour of the whole. He cleared the western Mediterranean in forty days, proceeded to Brundisium (Brindisi) and cleared the eastern Mediterranean in the same amount of time.

In Plutarch's account, Pompey's scattered forces encompassed every pirate fleet they came across and brought them to port. The pirates escaped to Cilicia. Pompey attacked Cilicia with his sixty best ships; after that he cleared the Tyrrhenian Sea, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and the Libyan Sea in forty days with the help of his lieutenants. Meanwhile, the consul Piso sabotaged Pompey's equipment and discharged his crews. Pompey went to Rome. The markets in Rome now were well stocked with provisions again and the people acclaimed Pompey. Piso was nearly stripped of his consulship, but Pompey prevented Aulus Gabinius from proposing a bill to this effect. He set sail again and reached Athens. He then defeated the Cilician pirates off the promontory of Coracesium. He then besieged them and they surrendered together with the islands and towns they controlled. The latter were fortified and difficult to take by storm. Pompey seized many ships. He spared the lives of 20,000 pirates. He resettled some of them in the city of Soli, which had recently been devastated by Tigranes the Great, the king of Armenia. Most were resettled in Dyme in Achaea, Greece, which was underpopulated and had plenty of good land. Some pirates were received by the half-deserted cities of Cilicia. Pompey thought that they would abandon their old ways and be softened by a change of place, new customs and a gentler way of life.

In Appian's account, Pompey went to Cilicia expecting to have to undertake sieges of rock-bound citadels. However, he did not have to. His reputation and the magnitude of his preparations provoked panic and the pirates surrendered, hoping to be treated leniently because of this. They gave up large quantities of weapons, ships and ship building materials. Pompey destroyed the material, took away the ships and sent some of the captured pirates back to their countries. He recognised that they had undertaken piracy due to the poverty caused by the mentioned war and settled many of them in Mallus, Adana Epiphania or any other uninhabited or thinly peopled town in Cilicia. He sent some to Dyme in Achaea. According to Appian, the war against the pirates lasted only a few days. Pompey captured 71 ships and 306 ships were surrendered. He seized 120 towns and fortresses and killed about 10,000 pirates in battles.

In Cassius Dio's brief account Pompey and his lieutenants patrolled ‘the whole stretch of sea that the pirates were troubling’, his fleet and his troops were irresistible both on sea and land. The leniency with which he treated the pirates who surrendered was 'equally great' and won over many pirates who went over to his side. Pompey 'took care of them' and gave them land which was empty or settled them in underpopulated towns so that they would not resort to crime due to poverty. Soli was among these cities. It was on the Cilician coast and had been sacked by Tigranes the Great. Pompey renamed it Pompeiopolis.

Metellus, a relative of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, with whom Pompey had fought in Hispania, had been sent to Crete, which was the second source of piracy before Pompey assumed command. He hemmed in and killed many pirates and besieged the remnants. The Cretans called on Pompey to come to Crete claiming that it was under his jurisdiction. Pompey wrote to Metellus to urge him to stop the war and sent one of his lieutenants, Lucius Octavius. The latter entered the besieged strongholds and fought with the pirates. Metellus persisted, captured and punished the pirates, and sent Octavius away after insulting him in front of the army.