Ben Kane

Correct, yeah.

It's right there, yeah.

And so at this point, some pirates come into the equation because pirate activity in the Mediterranean at this time was rife.

I mean, Crete particularly, but also Cilicia, which was an area of Turkey, were known for their piracy.

And there was no Royal Navy.

There was no American Navy.

There was no Navy to patrol the sea.

So the pirates really, they, in fact, helped drive the slave trade.

And they did what they liked.

We know that...

Spartacus met with some of these pirates and paid for 2,000 of his men to cross over to Sicily.

Now there wouldn't have been maybe enough money or ships or time to get his whole army over, but presumably what they were to do was to cross over and get a beachhead and maybe get some ships and come back for the rest.

But pirates do what pirates do.

And they took his money and they sailed away.

Now, maybe did the Romans pay them off?

You know, if Crassus heard, they could have got two payments, one from Spartax and then a bigger one from Crassus.

I think Crassus can pay more.

Yeah, Crassus can pay more.

So, you know, it's so long since I wrote those novels.

I think I might have had the pirate captain go up and do a deal with the Romans.