Title: The Pirate Chief

Author: Simon Scarrow

Pages: 555

Hi all,

The next story to have crossed my shelf this year is a historic fiction based in the early days of the Roman empire (i.e. after the downfall of the Roman Republic). Though, this book doesn’t follow a story from the Roman perspective, but instead of some people that lived in the territories that were under the control of the Roman empire.

The book is broken down into the following story lines:

• Life of a beggar
  • Chapter 1 (pg. 7) – Chapter 2 (pg. 29)
• Life of a sailor on a merchant ship
  • Chapter 3 (pg. 30) – Chapter 7 (pg. 87)
• Life of a sailor on a pirate ship
  • Chapter 8 (pg. 88) – Chapter 35 (pg. 418)
• Life of a captain on a pirate ship
  • Chapter 35 (pg. 418) – Chapter Epilogue (pg. 555)

In the first two chapters we meet our main character, Telemachos, who is a young boy living on the streets of the sea port town Piraeus. He sees a man that is being cornered by a group of thieves and helps the man by fighting them off. The man is grateful and offers him an opportunity of a better life.

Since a life working is better than a life begging he doesn’t hesitate and joins his new captain Clemestes on their ship the Selene. The next morning they head out and sail towards their first port to acquire some wines to trade at another location. Afterwards, they carry on towards the Black Sea, where they are caught off guard by a bad storm, which causes sever damage to their cargo. They make it to the port, but with only 25% of their cargo still in tact. When Clemestes meets up with his business partner he is confronted by the fact that he didn’t deliver the promised goods in full.

He is given a chance of reconciliation if he makes the journey to Salona, off the Illyric coast, to trade some grains. Since pirates in the region have all but stopped the trade, this would be quite a lucrative business. The captain accepts and they head out. They are well on their way and haven’t seen any trouble come their way when one day they spot a ship heading straight for them. Too late they identify it to be a pirate ship and they start fighting.

The pirate captain, Bulla, gives their crew a chance to become part of his crew, since they put up quite a good fight and he therefore needs to replace them. Captain Clemestes, however, is not given the same chance, but is killed instead. Telemachos and most of the survivors accept the offer and they become pirates.

Joining the new crew he already has some enemies to think about since he has killed one of their well-liked members of the old crew.

As pirates they first decide to head home to their safe port, Piratepolis, which they find to be completely demolished. The few survivors inform them that the Roman’s have started sending out more patrols to locate and kill all pirates they find, including their home ports. This is unsettling, but they then decide to search for a new port to become their new hide-out. A few days in they find another pirate ship, in pirate captain Nestor’s territory and they fight them off. However, they keep some prisoners, in the hopes that they will tell them where his hide-out is located. After some hurtful convincing, they give in and tell them where to find their hide-out.

Captain Bulla and his crew use the Trojan horse tactic to sneak in and then kill of the crew from the inside. New hide-out secured, captain Bulla chooses his right-hand man, Hector, and Telemachos to use the two ships in the port and sail along the coast to find some ships to plunder. They do so and a few days later return, however, only with minimal success. Thus, they decide to head out closer to the Italian peninsula. Though the Romans have started to locate and kill off pirates, they have not thought to protect their own territories as well. Here, they meet with another pirate captain, Agrios, whilst in pursuit of a merchant captain. After careful discussions, they agree to share the bounty and make a temporary partnership to work together alongside the Italian peninsula.

On one of their joined pursuits, captain Bulla is severely injured and their crew barely manages to flee the Roman ambush. Back at their hide-out the captain decides to hand over his captaincy to Telemachos, since he is sure that he will pass on in the coming days. Though Telemachos is still young and new to their business, he has proven himself to be quite a decent sailor, clever with devising strategies and diplomatic in handling negotiations.

Telemachos decides to call on the pirate captains in the nearby region and convince them to join him to launch an attack on the Roman’s main sea port Ravenna. He convinces them that if they continue to sail individually the Roman’s will take them down one-by-one. Whereas if they strike them together, they might stand a chance to hit them hard.

Thus, they head out together and devise another clever strategy to get into the port before they launch their attack.

This is not where the story ends, since a large battle ensues in the aftermath, but i will leave it to the potential reader to follow the battle as they read the final chapters themselves. 🙂

Summary:

The story is quite entertaining. It shows that we can make something of ourselves when we take on opportunities that present themselves to us. Though, in this case, the character has taken on the profession of piracy, which is not the profession I would urge people to go in to. You will follow a story where the character is constantly faced with new challenges, but he manages to keep a calm composure and get through it.

It is well written, and you will easily follow the plot of the story. The book will thus get a rating of 4.2/5.

Link (German): https://amzn.to/4aBL1HI

Link (English): https://amzn.to/3YJIzHM