"Roman Pirates" Topic

I've seen a few references to Roman pirates while looking for rules, etc., and was intrigued. How could I represent Roman pirates on the game table in, say, 15mm? Any generic tunic wearing figure of the time or what? Obviously legionaries wouldn't work…

I've never heard of actual ROMAN pirates. The Romans had to contend with pirates many times, and ultimately launched an enormous operation, spanning the entire Mediterranean, to wipe them out. A young Caesar was captured and ransomed back from pirates. Throughout his captivity he cheerfully told his captors that he would come back and kill them all. After he was freed, he went to Rhodes, requisitioned a fleet, and made good on his promise.

I think that unarmored, rioting civilian-type figures might work. A good place to start would be the Athenian Rower pack that Xyston does. Only 3 poses, but they look rather piratical!
link (Bottom of page.)

Sextus Pompey was something of a pirate.

Something of a pirate, but not a real pirate. I imagine his forces would be typical late Republican Romans.

Ah, ok, I should have started with THAT question then…

So the pirates are anyone who could get their hands on a galley or a knarr (knorr?) or what-have-you…

During the Republic the Adriatic was infested with Illyrian pirates until the Romans finally subjugated the region. Their were other pirates in the Mediterranean.

During the early Empire there was some minor piracy in the North Sea and along the Atlantic coast. These pirates were Germanic.

The North Sea piracy exploded during the 3rd Century. Most of these pirates were Franks and Saxons that raided along the Channel and Atlantic coasts. The Franks even managed to set up a pirate base in North Africa that lasted about a decade. One group of Frankish P.O.Ws were resettled in the East and after escaping managed an epic voyage from the Black Sea all the way across the Med. , around Spain and Gaul and ended up back home. This was during the reign of Probus in the late 3rd Century.
The Goths also managed to seize ships in the Black Sea and raided into the Agean.

Finally the Vandals became a major pirate force once they captured Carthage in the 5th Century.

Thanks, Hrothgar, makes more sense now.

I was tempted to nag about "Roman pirates" vs. "Roman era pirates," but decided I didn't want to look like pedant.

Cilicia and Crete were big pirate centers during the late Repubilc and early Imperial periods.

I agree you go with tunic and small or no shield, and random weapons.

Out of the way places always have bandits, since time immemorial. You have them today in the less developed quarters of the less developed countries. There are out of the way places at sea, and they have bandits, and those bandits are called pirates. They're always somewhere. Some of the "Trojan Wars" may have been an anti-piracy expedition of sorts.

Andrew

I admittedly don't know much about the Roman period…so your nag would have been taken well! :oP