Piracy as a Political Issue in the Roman Republic （2） : −Mithridates and Piracy−

Ancient evidences of piracy in the first half of the first century B.C., in general, report the mutual assistance between Mithridates, king of Pontos, the most implacable enemy of Romans and the Cilician pirates. In some phases of conflicts and wars between the king and Romans, this paper finds out two different though interrelated dimensions around piracy as a political issue in this period: ・A Roman imperialistic tactics which exploits the label of the co-operator to the pirates against Mithridates. ・A measure for the Roman elites to gain a political superiority through imperium and the success in the war against Mithridates and pirates. This character of piracy is essentially similar to the situation in the second century B.C. However, the third dimension also appears apparent in the first half of the first century: ・Actions such as pillage, slaughter or kidnapping by pirates supported by Mithridates gave Roman society a severe damage which requested the Senate to take a thorough measure to suppress the pirates. This situation let the Senate permit some Roman commanders imperium extra ordinem――a temporally and spatially huge military power