Slave trading in Constantinople, 1838

During the Ottoman period, piracy was a constant feature of life in and around the Aegean. Seamen, merchants, travellers, islanders and those who lived in the coastal villages of the Greek peninsula were not infrequently imprisoned by one of the organized piracy networks, only to end up enmeshed in the slave trade of North Africa and sizeable cities of the Ottoman Empire. Pirates tended to attack on festive days, when most of the inhabitants were gathered together in the central square and dressed in precious jewellery and ornaments. The only hope for a captive was for their family to pay the ransom that would buy them back from the pirates. If the family could not afford the requisite amount, the captive would turn his hopes to the community. In periods of intense piratic activity, however, even prosperous communities could not meet these expenses. For this reason, special funds were established for the purpose of buying back prisoners, and special taxes like the 'sklaviatika' or the 'tourkoteli' were imposed in the ports.

View of the town of Ios

Piracy was one of the characteristics of island life. Popular stories told of saints unexpectedly saving the poor inhabitants. Songs and morns spread stories of torture and other piratical deeds until the pirates became almost mythical characters. Proverbs and expressions contained references to piracy in everyday speech. But as there was apparently no solution the problem, the islanders learned to live with it. In fact some of the Cycladic islands, Euboea and the coastal regions in the Mani made their living from the pirates' raids. Pirate boats anchored off Serifos and Ios in the winter months; prostitution was almost welcomed as it gave the women and their families a supplementary income. Nor was religion always a bar to easy money: there are reports of monks participating in piracy in the northern Aegean.