 Pirates and Privateers
The History of Maritime
Piracy
Cindy Vallar, Editor
& Reviewer
P.O. Box 425,
Keller, TX 76244-0425
Time Line of History
Piracy & Privateering, Maritime, Scottish, & Events
(updated 3 February 2023)
This time line is a work in
progress. It incorporates events important
to pirate history, as well as important
historical happenings at sea, in Scotland,
and around the world. Although pirates gave
allegiance to no nation, they didn't work in
a void. What happened on land could and did
impact what happened at sea. Dates are
divided into centuries first, then by year,
and if the exact date is known, by month and
day within that year.
Special thanks to Luis for his
assistance in researching some of these dates.
Special thanks to those who have
caught my errors and let me know.
 Talk
Like a Pirate Day, September 19
 National Maritime Day,
May 22
Before the 1st
Century
1st-3rd
Centuries
4th & 5th
Centuries
6th & 7th
Centuries
8th Century
9th Century
10th Century
11th
Century
12th
Century
13th
Century
14th
Century
15th
Century
16th
Century
17th
Century
18th
Century
19th
Century
20th Century
21st Century
Before
the 1st Century
4977 BCE
April 27: According to the
calculations of Johannes Kepler, a German
mathematician and astronomer, this is the day
that the universe is created.
1340
BCE
Lukkans
raid Cyprus.
1220 BCE - 1186 BCE
Sea People
plague Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, and Crete. Around
1200, they destroy several cities, including
Ugarit. They are defeated in 1186 by Ramses III.
1184 BCE
June 11: Troy is sacked and
burned during the Trojan War.
781 BCE
June 4: Chinese record a solar
eclipse. It is the oldest written record of such
an event.
753 BCE
April 21: Founding of Rome
694 BCE
Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, attempts to stamp out piracy.
597 BCE
March 16: Babylonians capture
Jerusalem.
589 BCE
First
recorded incident of piracy in the South China
Sea
509 BCE
Roman Republic founded
480 BCE
Sea battle of Salamis (first
recorded sea battle in history)
399 BCE
February 15: Athens sentences
Socrates to death for corrupting youths and for
not being pious.
334 BCE
May 22: Alexander the Great's
Macedonian army defeats Darius III of Persia
at the Battle of the Granicus.
332 BCE
Alexander the Great conquers
Egypt.
331 BCE
Alexander the Great appoints
Admiral Amphoterus to hunt pirates.
October 1: Battle of Gaugamela.
Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of
Persia. It signals the end of the Persian
empire.
323 BCE
Alexander the Great dies.
c. 300 BCE
Theophrasus, a Greek scientist,
uses messages in bottles to study the currents
of the Mediterranean.
Rhodes
develops the triemiola, a three-banked ship that
uses both sail and oar together. These vessels
hunt pirates.
302 BCE
8,000 pirates join Demetrius in
his fight to control a portion of Alexander the
Great's empire during the 4th Diadoch War.
241 BCE
March 10: Romans sink the
Carthaginian fleet at the Battle of the
Aegates Islands, bringing an end to the 1st
Punic War.
229 BCE
Gaius and
Lucius Corancanius, official envoys from Rome,
request that Queen Teuta restrain her fleet
after most honest trade grinds to halt because
of piratical attacks.
228 BCE
Queen Teuta
surrenders to the Romans, agrees to pay annual
tribute, and relinquishes most of her
territorial holdings. She retains the right to
sail only two unarmed galleys at one time.
218 BCE
The Second Punic War begins.
By the time it ends in 201 BCE, the Roman
Republic controls Italy.
202 BCE
February 28: Liu Bang is
crowned Emperor Gaozu in China, beginning four
centuries of rule by the Han Dynasty.
192 BCE
Rome
conquers the Aetolian League, and the pirates
relocate to Cilicia.
146 BCE
Rome conquers Greece and
Macedonia.
February 5: Rome
destroys Carthage, bringing an end to the 3rd
Punic War.
105 BCE
October 1: Germanic tribes
defeat the Roman army in the Battle of Arauso.
101 BCE
Rome passes
its first anti-piracy law.
86 BCE
Pirate
fleet defeats Roman squadron off Brindisi, in
Southern Italy, disrupting communications
between Rome and Greece.
c. 75 BCE
Cilician
pirates capture Julius Caesar. He remains their
prisoner for just over a month until the ransom
is paid. Once he gains his freedom, he gathers a
punitive force and returns to their island,
where he crucifies the pirates.
74 BCE
Marcus
Antonius Creticus is defeated while attacking
Cretan pirates. He soon dies.
72 BCE
Cilician
pirates aid Spartacus, who leads a slave revolt
in Italy. This alliance inspires Rome to deal
with the piracy threat.
69 BCE
Pirates
sack the sacred isle of Delos where the Roman
Empire's main treasury is located.
67 BCE
Gnaeus
Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) is granted an
imperium to enforce Rome’s anti-piracy law. He
eradicates the pirates in 49 days.
48 BCE
August 9: Julius Caesar defeats
Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus during the
Roman Civil War (49-45 BCE). Pompey flees to
Egypt, where he is subsequently murdered.
September 28: King Ptolemy of
Egypt orders the assassination of Pompey the
Great after he lands in Egypt.
45 BCE
January 1: First use of the
Julian calendar
44 BCE
Resurgence
of piracy in Mediterranean.
March 15: Julius Caesar is
assassinated. Brutus Cassius and other Roman
senators stab him to death.
36 BCE
Octavian
defeats Sextus and crushes the pirates.
31 BCE
September 2: Battle of Actium.
Octavian, who later becomes Augustus Caesar,
wins this decisive naval battle against Mark
Antony.
1st
- 3rd Centuries
30
Jesus is
crucified.
31
March 25:
According to Dionysius Exiguus, a 6th-century
monk and calendar maker, this is the date of
the first Easter.
41
January 24:
Officers of the Praetorian Guard assassinate
Caligula. His uncle Claudius succeeds him as
emperor.
64
July 18: Fire
spreads through Rome during Nero's reign.
65
June 8: Jews
rebel against Rome. They capture the
fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem.
68
June 9: Roman Emperor Nero commits
suicide.
June 21: During the Great Jewish Revolt, the
Romans capture Jericho.
70
June 5: Titus
and the legions of Rome breach the middle wall
of Jerusalem.
August 29:
Jerusalem falls to Roman forces, marking the
collapse of the Jewish state.
73
April 16:
Masada, a Jewish fortress atop a mesa in
Israel, falls to 8,000 Roman soldiers after
a siege that lasts several months. Of the
960 Judean rebels, only two women and five
children survived. Rather than become
slaves, the others commit suicide.
79
August 24: Mount
Vesuvius, which has been dormant for
centuries, erupts, burying Pompeii and
Herculaneum and killing 15,000. The cities
aren't excavated until the mid-18th century.
88
Sighelm makes a
pilgrimage to Indian at the behest of Alfred
the Great.
122
September 13:
Romans begin building Hadrian's Wall in
Northern England.
193
March 28:
Praetorian Guards assassinate Emperor Pertinax
of Rome. They auction the throne to the
highest bidder, Didius Julianus.
217
April 8: Roman
Emperor Caracalla is assassinated by his
Praetorian Guard prefect Marcus Opellius
Macrinus, who succeeds him as emperor.
220
Pirates plague Chinese coast.
221
December 25:
Sextus Julius Africanus identifies this year
as the birth date of Jesus.
4th & 5th
Centuries
301
September 3: St.
Marinus establishes San Marino, one of the
world's smallest nations and the world's
oldest republic still in existence today.
303
February 23:
Emperor Diocletian of Rome begins
persecuting Christians and razes the church
at Nicomedia.
325
August 25:
Council of Nicaea closes. This first
ecumenical council of the Christian church
adopts the Nicene Creed, establishing the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
330
Constantine
moves to Byzantium and founds the Byzantine
Empire.
335
September 13:
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is
consecrated in Jerusalem.
400
Summer: Large fleets of Chinese
pirates attack all ships they encounter.
404
January 1: Final
competition of gladiators in Rome
410
August 24:
Alaric I and the Visigoths sack Rome, bringing
about the downfall of the Western Roman
Empire.
421
March 25:
Founding of Venice
432
Saint Patrick
begins to spread Christianity through Ireland.
441
Saint Patrick
makes a pilgrimage to Cruachan Aigle
(Eagle Mountain) in Ireland.
451
September 20:
Flavius Aetius, a Roman general, defeats
Attila the Hun at the Battle of the
Catalaunian Plavis. This ferocious battle
stops the Huns' first advance in Europe.
452
June 8: Attila
the Hun invades Italy.
550
January 16: King Totila and the
Ostrogoths conquer Rome after a long siege.
558
May 7: The dome of the
Hagia Sophia collapses in Constantinople.
565
August 21: St. Columba sees
the Loch Ness monster.
589
First
record of a pirate attack in Chinese waters
600
June 18: Coronation of Li
Yuan as emperor, beginning 300 years of
the Tang Dynasty's rule of China.
622
July 16: Muhammad begins his
flight from Mecca to Medina.
632
June 8: Muhammad, founder
of Islam, dies in Medina.
693
Carthage falls.
8th Century
708
August 29:
Copper coins are minted for the first time in
Japan.
768
October 9:
Charlemagne and Carloman I, his brother,
become Kings of the Franks.
781
July 31: First
record of the eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
787
Charlemagne
conquers most of Italy.
789
Vikings' first raid on England.
Three ships of Norsemen land on the Wessex
coast and slay the king's official.
793
June 8: Vikings raid Saint
Cuthbert's monastery on Lindisfarne Island in
Britain. The monks are slain, the monastery
looted and set afire.
800
Charlemagne
organizes coastal defenses north of the Seine
estuary against pirates.
December 25: Charlemagne, king
of the Franks, is crowned Holy Roman
Emperor. He is the first such monarch.
9th Century
806
Vikings
slay sixty-eight monks on Iona.
811
Korean
pirates attack Japan.
813
Korean
pirates attack Japan.
834
Oseberg ship burial in Norway.
839
Vikings
winter in Ireland for the first time.
841
July 10: Dublin is
founded on the river Liffey in Ireland. At
the time, it is known as Dubh Linn (black
pool).
843
June
24: Vikings destroy Nantes, France.
844
Vikings
raid Lisbon and Cadiz, but a Muslim army
repulses them at Seville.
845
Vikings
sack Hamburg.
March
28: Vikings sack Paris.
846
Fleet
of Saracen pirates attack Rome. Unable to
penetrate the city's walls, they plunder the
many outlying villas and basilica of Saint
Peter. On their way home, they encountered a
storm and the ships sank.
850
Vikings
winter in England for the first time.
860
June
18: Rus Vikings attack Constantinople.
862
Pirates
attack boats carrying tax rice and slaying
people in west of Japan.
865
Viking
army (referred to in English sources as the
Great Heathen Army) invades Britain. The
Vikings that take part are Norse, Danes, and
Swedes and are commanded by three sons of
Ragnar Lodbrok: Halfdan Ragnarsson, Ivar the
Boneless, and Ubba. They land on the coast of
East Anglia and eventually capture Northumbria
and York.
867
Danes capture York.
870
North African Muslims capture the
Maltese Islands.
c. 875
King Alfred founds English navy
and designs new ship to combat Vikings.
878
May 6: Alfred the Great and
his West Saxon Army defeat the Vikings,
under the command of Guthrum the Old, at the
Battle of Edington.
881
Vikings
attack cities along the Rhine River, including
Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and Trier.
885
November:
Viking seige of Paris begins. Nearly a year
passes before the siege is lifted in October
886.
893
Korean
pirates attack Japan.
891
October 6: Formosus becomes
pope. Nine months after his death in 896,
his body is dug up, propped on a throne, and
placed on trial. He will be found guilty of
the charges against him and his papacy is
declared invalid. This and the treatment of
his corpse will divide Rome; Pope Stephen VI
will be imprisoned and strangled to death.
Pope Theodore II reinstates Formosus's
ordinations and reinters his body in Saint
Peter's Basilica. The incident is one of the
most bizarre in papal history.
894
Korean
pirates attack Japan.
896
King Alfred of Wessex in England
defeats Danes.
900
circa: Gokstad ship buried.
902
Vikings
expelled from Dublin, Ireland.
904
July
29: Saracen pirates sack Thessalonica.
Their leader is Leo of Tripoli.
910
August
5: King Edward and Earl Aethelred defeat a
Viking army at the Battle of Tettenhall.
It is the last major raid by the invaders.
911
October 1: Mary, Jesus's
mother (also known as the Theotokos),
appears at the church in Balchernae during
the siege of Constantinople. She holds her
veil over those who are praying, including
Saint Andrew of Constantinople.
912
Viking
raiders prey on shipping in the Caspian
Sea.
925
September 4: Athelstan of
the West Saxons becomes the first king to
rule all of England.
930
June 23: Founding of
Icelandic Althing, the oldest parliament
in the world.
936
First
time in Japanese history that pirates band
together under a strong leader, Fujiwara
Sumitomo.
1000
September
9: King Olaf of Norway, aboard Long
Serpent, is defeated in the Battle
of Svolder, one of the greatest naval
battles of the Viking Era.
October 9: Leif Ericson discovers
Vinland.
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