Zeniketes

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Olympos
The flames of the Chimaira.

Zeniketes († 77 BC in Olympos ) was a pirate who lived in the 1st century BC. Was ruler of a small pirate empire in Lycia and Pamphylia .

He succeeded in bringing first the city of Olympos and then the neighboring cities of Korykos and Phaselis into his power. From there he threatened maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean. When the Roman troops of Publius Servilius Vatia in 77 BC BC stormed his fortress on Mount Olympus, he set himself and his entire household on fire.

Plutarch reports that the Cilician pirates (by which he probably means Zeniketes and his entourage) made strange sacrifices in Olympos and worshiped the Mithras . In connection with these cult activities there is probably the Chimaira , which is located very close by, an earth fire and cult site that already existed at that time , where at the time of the Zeniketes flames emerged from the mountain from afar.

It remains unclear whether Zeniketes was originally a Cilician pirate or a chief from the mountains of the hinterland who allied with the Cilician pirates based on common interests.

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literature

  • NK Rauh, RW Townsend, M. Hoff, L. Wandsnider: Pirates in the Bay of Pamphylia. An Archaeological Inquiry. The Sea in Antiquity, British Archaeological Reports. On-line
  • Karl field: Barbarian citizens: the Isaurians and the Roman Empire. de Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3110188996 , p. 67f
  • Henry A. Ormerod: Piracy in the Ancient World. An essay in Mediterranean history. University Press, Liverpool 1924. New edition: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, ISBN 0801855055 , p. 216
  • Henry A. Ormerod: The Campaigns of Servilius Isauricus against the Pirates. In: The Journal of Roman Studies , Vol. 12 (1922), pp. 35-56

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adnan Diler: Lycian Olympos Dağında Bir Ön Araştırma. In: Turk Arkeologiji Dergisi 29 (1991), pp. 161-176 and Orhan Atvur: Olympos Antik Kentı (1991-1992 Çalişmaları). In: Arkeoloji ve Sanat 88 (1999), pp. 13-31
  2. ↑ Ormerod: The Campaigns of Servilius Isauricus 1922, p. 41f
personal data
SURNAME Zeniketes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cilician pirate
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 77 BC Chr.
Place of death Olympos (Lycia)