First female pirate queen forced the Romans to cross the seas to fight her
Although Queen Teuta is a famed figure in Slavic history, many don’t know the story of the first female pirate queen, who commanded pirates and fought the Romans in a legendary story.
For hundreds of years, the ancient Illyrians fought along the Adriatic sea – inching the footholds of their region closer and closer north towards modern-day Slovenia and south into modern-day Albania. Hardy warriors, who claimed the northwestern part of the Balkan peninsula, they were divided into tribes but united by strong chieftains, such as King Agron.
Northern Albania, a region the Illyrians once inhabited. Picture: Klajdi Cena / Pexels
In the late 3rd century BCE, King Agron united with Demetrius II of Macedonia to defeat the Aetolians – the people of a mountainous region in northwest Greece. This was a decisive victory, one which would make King Agron a legend and make Illyria a major threat to their enemies. The only problem? He allegedly celebrated his victory so hard he developed a bout of pleurisy, which killed him near immediately in the winter of 231 BCE and thrust his kingdom into disarray.
His troops, still high off their victory, took to pillaging the Greek cities off the coast of Illyria, who raised the alarm to the nearby Romans. They responded by sending an envoy, who the Illyrians promptly killed. Now, they had effectively angered the militant neighbouring Empire to their west, and had no leader to help them with their next move.
King Agron’s only successor was his son Pinnes, who was too young at the time to take the throne. So the kingdom turned to Pinnes’ stepmother and Agron’s wife – Queen Teuta – to lead as regent until he became of age, and to handle their problems with the Romans.
At once, she assumed control with an iron fist. She told her kingdom that all of their neighbours were their enemies, and encouraged piracy. She then sent her armies to attack Elis and Messenia in the Peloponnese, who then seized a major trade city on the way home. This spooked the Greeks and the Romans, who now realized that the Illyrians intended to keep moving westward.
While her troops held control of the city, they pirated so many Italian merchant ships that the Romans had to send ambassadors to solicit reparations and demand an end to the piracy – a move which also could have been used to justify future violence against her kingdom.
Picture: Julius Weidenauer / Pexels
Upon the arrival of the ambassadors, they found Teuta celebrating her victories on the seas. She refused to stop the piracy, saying it was a time-honoured tradition of her people, and was treated harshly by the Romans as a result. To punish their insolent behaviour towards her, she had her envoys capture their ship on the way home, and murdered the mouthy ambassador(s).
Naturally, Rome then prepared for war, and started plans to cross the Adriatic sea for the first time. They officially declared war in 229 BCE, and sent 20,000 troops, 200 cavalry units, and an entire Roman fleet of 200 warships led by two famous generals.
Uh-oh.
Rome was already legendary for their strength on the battlefield at this point in history, and their swift movement caught Queen Teuta by surprise, as she was in the middle of sending her troops to Greece. When the Roman ships landed on Illyrian shores, her governor Demetrius panicked and betrayed her, surrendering the city to the Romans and becoming their advisor for the duration of the conflict.
Meanwhile, the rest of their army marched north to Apollonia, and merged with the rest of their forces to lay siege on Illyria’s capital city, Scodra. Queen Teuta fled with some of her followers while the Romans took control. Knowing she was outnumbered, she made a treaty in the spring of 228 BCE that acknowledged the authority of Rome and restricted the size of her reign to a tiny strip.
It’s hard to know exactly what happened to Queen Teuta after her defeat, particularly as accounts of her story are marred by ancient misogynistic historians who were biased in their depictions of an anti-Roman female leader. Some say she threw herself off a mountain into the sea, thereby cursing the nearby town with an unnatural fear of the water. Others say she fled in exile and lived out the rest of her days in peace after her abdication. But in any case, she became a hero in Illyrian history, whose name became synonymous with powerful female strength.
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