From Stevenson's Treasure Island to Pirates of the Caribbean, the romantic image of pirates in Western popular culture has long been with us. But pirates are not all as charming as Johnny Depp. Thracians and Tyrennians, Cilicians and Illyrians terrorised traders in the Mediterranean of the ancient world. Pirates were and are outlaws who move quickly. This is a lively history of piracy, from ancient times through the Renaissance privateers' with their Letters of Marque (an early form of state-sponsored terrorism) to the flourishing threat of contemporary pirates.'
