Session Abstract

This panel turns from the broader themes examined in the first three papers to the specific case of piracy – which can be taken at once as a defiance of legitimate authority and as a manifestation of shadow hegemony over a period stretching from Antiquity to the Early Modern Age.  Claudia Arno examines trade and piracy on “Mare Nostrum” in the age of Imperial Rome, while Joshua White turns to the examine similar issues in the Ottoman era.  The panel is rounded out by David Coleman, whose case study illuminates some of the paradoxes and tensions generated by the piratical activity in the Mediterranean at the close of the Middle Ages and dawn of Modernity. (See Multi-Panel Session Abstract)