Pirates' Havens in the Mediterranean: 'Korykos'es in Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia and Ionia

At the same time when the Mediterranean stepped on the stage of history as a "sea route", secondary powers took their positions in the region to somehow catch shares from this trade route. Thanks to its position in the East Mediterranean and its well-protected natural harbors; coastline of southwest Anatolia assumed an indispensable geo-strategic importance both for central powers and for pirates, who were excluded from this sphere. Historical references repeatedly tell about piracy in this region particularly in the second and the first half of the first century BC. A careful study of the abovementioned ancient sources reveals another point of curiosity, not entirely clarified to date. This point is that many sites in Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia, and Ionia, which were somehow related with piracy, were widely called Korykos or Korykeia. The link between these activities and the mentioned name within the context of content and place constitutes the scope of the present article.

Consequently it is worth noting that mountains, hills, rocks, promontories, harbors and coasts having the same toponyms in the hinterlands of Korykoses in Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia and Ionia are all linked with piracy and pirates, and furthermore, that the word korykaion is the name for pirates' boats. When the ancient sources are explored it is seen that, particularly in the second and first centuries BC, cities called Korykos were either famed for piracy or for collaborating with pirates; that, people called "Korykosian" (korykaios), who eavesdropped deliberately, aided and abetted the pirates, so much that comedy writers created a funny stereotype character called "korykaios (korykosian)" who eavesdropped deliberately. In this regard, it should not be a mistake to consider the cities named Korykos and sites in their hinterlands with synonyms as well as attributes of Korykos/Korykosian could be linked with pirates/piracy just as the ethnicon of "Cilician" recalled pirates in the terminology of antiquity (App. Mithr 21; 92/93) for a while.