The image of the pirate today haunts the imagination of statesmen, diplomats and international legal scholars as an unlikely global security threat. But what are the origins of the 'pirate myth' in the Western political imagination? Drawing on history, international law, literature and politics, this book offers an original genealogy of this myth. From the persecutio piratarum that inaugurates the Imperial phase of Roman history to the contemporary global mobilization against Somali pirates, this book shows that the ways in which pirates have been used, criminalized, condemned and suppressed by European powers continues to be a fundamental element in the formation of the world market.