The Pirate Queen Who Gave the Romans Fits
Rome’s quarrel with Queen Teuta began when some of her pirates seized and plundered Roman vessels. When the merchants complained to the Roman Senate, it initially tried to handle the problem with diplomacy. Two envoys were accordingly sent to Teuta’s court to complain. She responded that piracy was legal among the Illyrians, and that her government had no right to interfere with its citizens’ private enterprises. When the Roman diplomats retorted that Rome would then have no choice but to make her change Illyrian laws, Teuta stopped feeling diplomatic. She ordered one of the Roman envoys killed, and the other imprisoned.
The outraged Romans declared war in 229 BC. A fleet of 200 warships was sent to harry the Illyrians at sea, while an army of 20,000 men and cavalry crossed the Adriatic to harry Teuta’s kingdom by land. The pirate queen conducted a fierce resistance that gave the Romans no end of trouble. However, Teuta’s kingdom was no match for the might of Rome. In 227 BC, she was forced to surrender and sign a humiliating peace treaty. She kept her throne, but as a Roman vassal forced to pay an annual tribute, and left to rule over a shrunken realm, stripped of much of its territory.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Cracked – 15 Ways the Ancient World Was Different Than We Imagine
Daily Beast – The Victorious Gay Greek Army That Got Cancelled by History
Daily Beast – Things You Probably Don’t Know About the Olympics
Dando-Collins, Stephen – The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City (2010)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Scipio Africanus
Encyclopedia Iranica – Carrhae
Gloria Romanorum – Constantine’s Execution of Crispus and Fausta
Goldworthy, Adrian – The Complete Roman Army (2003)
Gonick, Larry – The Cartoon History of the Universe, Volume II (1994)
Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct., 1932) – Cremation and Burial in the Roman Empire
Historia, Bd. 41, H. 4 (1992) – Flavia Maxima Fausta: Some Remarks
History Collection – 18 Examples of Crime and Punishment in the Ancient Persian Empire
History Today, Volume 44, Issue 11, November 1994 – An Army of Lovers: The Sacred Band of Thebes
Hopkins, Keith, and Beard, Mary – The Colosseum (2005)
Livy – History of Rome, Books XXVI, XXVIII, XXIX
Miller, Stephen G. – Ancient Greek Athletics (2004)
Moss, Candida – The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom (2013)
Plutarch – Parallel Lives: Life of Crassus
Swaddling, Judith – The Ancient Olympic Games (1984)
United Nations of Roma Victrix – The Samnite Wars
Washington Post, February 17th, 2016 – Lead Poisoning and the Fall of Rome
