Queen Teuta the Untameable

shortly after to BC. Queen to Jota is often considered the pirate Queen of Antiquity, but that's actually a little bit misleading, and it's misleading because she was not actually a pirate herself. While she might not be known for personally pillaging and looting, she is known for commanding an army of pirates throughout the Adriatic and mediterran Indian seas, and she's also known for defying the Roman Republic. Toyota was the second wife of Agrin, king of the Illyrians,

and stepmother to Agrin infant son. We are not sure of the pronunciation on this one. We are guessing Pine's. Under his leadership, the Ardian Kingdom went through a period of expansion, and Agrin was the first king to unify the tribes and regions between the Adriatic coast, from land that's now modern day Slovenia all the way to part of the Balkan Peninsula in Albania. The Illyrians were tribes and states of people with similar language and customs, and

they all lived in the same region. They were a loosely and I'm going to review that loosely tied nation. It's believed that the name was originally the name of a single tribe, and that upon meeting the ancient Greeks and Romans misunderstood that and called all the tribes and states in the area Illyrians. Because of the available information, we're actually going to just use the word Illyrian in

that more blanket sense. But keep in mind throughout that we are not talking about a monolith, and that this is a construct of historians outside this culture. Now you may recognize the Illyrians because the name appears in Greek mythology in battle in the legend of Cadmus and Harmonia. But to be clear, the Illyrians were also real people and we're going to be talking about the real people and pirates and violence that took place during the third

century during Queen Toota's reign. King Argun ruled during the second half of the third century BC. He was the king who brought the Illyrian ships under the leader's umbrella control. So previously these sailors had been independent, let's call them entrepreneurs, and taking all they could get for themselves until the king made their piracy part of his state policy. Agrin grew to have the most powerful army and navy of Illyrian rulers before him, and among his neighboring lands as well.

Although he won and lost many battles, he is best known for his victory over the Aetolian League in western Greece, but it was this battle against the Aetolians that would also be his end. Around two thirty one b c. E Agrin died subtly. Some accounts suggest that the king was known to celebrate with the crews of his victorious ships,

and that this time he overindulged. Other versions suggest that he died from complications of pleurisy, and yet others kind of make a combination package of this and suggest that he died of complications of pleuracy because he partied too hard with the pirates. When he died. Piny's, though the king's only heir, did not rule. He was actually really very young when his father died, and Toyota stepped in to act as queen regent over the kingdom in his place.

So what we know about her rule are primarily accounts of her pro piracy laws. Writ accounts of her, though have been considered sexist by some, and in general, are all written with a very pro Greek or pro Roman point of view. They were, after all written by ancient Greeks and Romans. As we go along, remember it is often best to take things with a green of salt. Anytime you're talking about events as far back as the third century b c. The distance of time has made

things a little blurry. What's interesting and important about that is that the guy who primarily wrote about thrown Republic's rise to power also wrote about this queen, and that's the account from which we draw most of our knowledge about Toyota. Enter Polybius. Polybius was a Greek statesman and historian. His works include a now lost manual on military tactics, but he is best known for his writings called the Histories.

Polybius was known to conduct interviews. He was essentially an early journalist, and he was considered to be an analytical historian. The details of out many events from history are based on his interpretation and his writing about it. Today's scholars accept his work more or less at face value, largely because he himself outed an approach that recorded history should

always have eyewitness accounts to verify any story. Modern historians Andrew Curry and Craig Champion consider Polybius to be we quote, fairly reliable and remarkably well informed, industrious, and insightful. We will actually hear a lot of his thoughts as we continue, but right now we're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, we'll talk about a queen who authorized piracy in her kingdom. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's start by talking about what

the historian Polybius thought of Toyota. Polibius wrote about Toyota, but he also wrote about her husband, Agrant. I mean quote him here, Agrin, he wrote, possessed the most powerful force, both by land and sea, of any of the kings who had reigned in Illyria before him. He described Toyota, though as having a quote woman's natural shortness of you. He wrote that she quote could see nothing but the recent success and had no eyes of what was going

on elsewhere. But what he does go on to mention about her is that the queen supported and encouraged piracy among her people and ordered her vessels to treat everyone as an enemy. The Illyrians had a long and story and pirating tradition. They had long been praying on Italian merchants who traded in the Adriatic Sea. Just as under the deceased King Agrin, piracy was legal. Under the Queen, she outwardly supported and encouraged piracy, and throughout her whole

reign she kept it legal. In fact, it was considered a suitable, if not respectable, way of making a living in her kingdom. Piracy brought her more wealth and allowed her to show up her own resources. As queen and commander of the Illyrian pirates, Toyota was bold. Remember, she wasn't doing it herself, but she was giving all of the orders. She sanctioned piracy in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean seas. She authorized those engaging in piracy. They were

actually given licenses. These were letters of mark and reprisal issued by the government, making it legal for private citizens to basically become legal pirates. That was a career path. They are known, of course as privateers or corsairs, and they're basically pirates who got paid to do it to you. To use her privateers as her own private army, which sailed in well armed ships. They were allowed to attack and capture merchant vessels at sea and pillage what they

could find on land. And it was all legal, whether the victim was of a nation at war with the Illyrians or not. And it's the end that the Illyrians became well known and maybe infamous or feared are better words here for looting merchant chips. I'm just thinking about the concept of, yes, this is your job, and also you can do whatever illegal thing you want, but that's fine. It's it's still your job, and we'll sanction it, and

I'm gonna give you. This thing looks like a driver's license in riinal in the Histories, Polybius wrote of the queen quote. Her first measure was to grant license to privateers, authorizing them to plunder all whom they fell in with. And she next collected a fleet and military force as large as the former one, and dispatched them with general instructions to the leaders to regard every land as belonging

to an enemy. He continued on about Toyota, saying from time immemorial the Illyrians had oppressed in pillaged vessels sailing from Italy. They committed acts of piracy on a number of Italian merchants. Some they merely plundered, others they murder, and a great many they carried off alive into captivity. The Illyrians who sailed sailed three main types of warships. These were Lembo, the Priests, and the Laburna. All of these were pretty good for pirating. The priest ease was

long and narrow as a warship. The Laburnian warship was powerful and it was propelled by oars. But their fastest and most agile, and a very common choice for those engaging in piracy, was the Lembo. This had a single bank of oars and no sales, and it was considered the best of the best of transport ships in the ancient world. It said the Illarians packed as many as one hundred pirates into the vessel's tight galley, and that

was fifteen a row and fifty to fight. But probably give her take on those number of rowers, that seems really high. So the Llarian piracy it worked like this, and it seems very piraty. Actually, crews in Lembo Is hidden sheltered places along the coast, and they waited for merchant ships to comby, and when one did, they would row until they were alongside, they'd board, and then they'd overwhelmed the crew and take whatever it was that they wanted.

Very efficient. That's why they need fifty dudes, because they got to be fast and shock about it. Merchants who were being plundered by these pirate ships asked for help from the states on the shores of the Adriatic, but no one really had the forces needed to fight these pirates, and at this time the Romans really didn't see the need to get involved. Because the Illyrians had attacked a

few merchants and threatened a lot of others. Encouraged by their pirate commanding queen, and with no or very few repercussions from anyone else, crews increased their intensity of the attacks. Allarian pirates overtook the city of Finichet, and more than once actually, although sometimes the Allarians were forced to withdraw their own troops because of an internal rebellion. It didn't happen all the time, but in fighting among tribes was way more common than you might guess. When not fighting

among themselves, the Illyrian pirates did attack others. They violently defeated a Pirochet forces sent to fortify Finachet. Many were killed or captured, and it said that a garrison of eight hundred men surrendered to Toyota's pirate crews. This was an attention grabbing event. So, for example, had this happened in a time when media was widespread, it would have been front page news kind of all over the globe.

Their piracy in the Adriatic, which included raiding Roman and Greek ships and coastal settlements, finally did catch the attention of Rome. It was when Toyota's pirate ships began attacking Roman vessels that things started to escalate. So we're gonna take a quick break for a word from a sponsor, and when we're back, let's talk about why the Roman Republic would care at all about Queen Toyota. Welcome back to criminalia. Now let's talk about the time when Queen

Toyota assassinated one or maybe two Roman envoys. Okay, so we have to lay the groundwork for what's going on. At this time, the Roman Republic had just defeated the Carthaginians. Because Rome had eyes on controlling the Mediterranean. They wanted this thriving port and this trading area, the Republic declared war in what became known as the First Punic War. Olybia's described the Punic Wars. There were three between the empires as quote, the longest and most severely contested war

in history. The Punic Wars were basically two empires battling for control of trade in the Mediterranean Sea. And this could easily be a whole episode in its own right if we were covering international conflicts instead of pirates. That victory for the Romans was important because it boosted the

Roman Republic's influence across the Mediterranean. But there was another rival on the rise that could get in their way, and that's too so Toota and her assembly of pirates had begun to threaten and pillage vessels along trade routes that ran across the Adriatic Sea. And Roman vessels were pillaged as well. Rome sent two envoys, Gaius and Lucius Corincanius, to meet with the queen, and this was to try to dissuade her from continuing to pursue and encourage piracy.

She insisted that she was simply not responsible for the actions of Illyrian privateers. Toyota said to have replied, quote, it was never the custom of royalty to prevent the advantage of its subjects that they could get from the sea. It is said that when one of the envoys sharply disagreed with her on this point, she ordered one of them, and possibly both of them killed. But here there are other accounts that suggest the queen's meeting with the Roman

envoys went a little bit differently. In one really stand out account by a Roman historian, it's written that Toota had not yet risen to power when the Roman Senate sent in there too ambassadors, and that changes the story quite a bit if it's true. Regardless of whether Toyota had already become the scourge of the Mediterranean or not, the Roman Republic was in a really strong position when

Toyota hit their radar. They had unified Italy, and they had recently defeated a significant rival for control over strategic positions in the Mediterranean Sea, and they were now the largest presence in the Mediterranean, but Toyota refused to submit to them. Toyota's power was increasing, and after brutal attacks from her pirates on Roman trading vessels, the treatment of their envoys, and the fact that they really really wanted trade in the Adriatic, the Romans Senate deployed their navy

against her. And when the Romans attacked, they were fearce and methodical, and they tried to parlay that loose association of groups that made up the Illyrians into suggesting that pirates sailing for Toyota had been pressed into it. They traveled up the Adriatic coast quote freeing again that is, with quotes, freeing these Illyrian crews along the way, and each of these boats was told that they were now

under Roman protection. Again that's air quotes, although Rome didn't station any troops in these allegedly newly freed areas, so there really was no protection there whatsoever. They also tried to convince the Illyrian pirates that the Roman Republic was their new and one more time with those air quotes. Friend, Hey, we're friends. We're pals. Listening, guys, Friends don't attack friends.

Everybody be cool. It was around this time that Demetrius Afaris, he was the advisor slash military general to Toyota, he turned traitor. Seeing that the odds were not good against Rome, or just maybe out of fear, he turned his loyalties away from the queen and collaborated with the republic instead, and he even acted as Rome's counsel in the war against Toyota, and that betrayal was decisive in the conflict.

Over the course of just a few weeks, Rome destroyed Toyota's kingdom and the unification of Illyrian tribes that King Agrin had accomplished was gone. This was the beginning of what would come to be known as the Illyrian Wars, a series of conflicts between Rome and the Illyrians for control of trade across the Adriatic Sea. The first battle, which is this battle we're talking about, lasted for two years, and when the Romans completely overwhelmed the Illyrian garrison at Coursyra,

Queen Toyotas surrendered. Rome placed a few terms on her surrender, including of course abdication of the throne. Many accounts report that Toyota was actually given a small region that she could rule, but we can't prove that that's not verified in any sort of real way. There are, of course a few versions of what happened when to surrendered. There's one that says she begged the Romans for a truth. There's another that says she was fined and forced to

surrender most of her kingdom to the Republic. And there was one thing that seemed to be part of a few of these stories, actually that she was forbidden from ever again setting sail with more than two ships that would be two membos, in particular beyond southern Olaria. This one comes up a lot because I think it makes sense this would keep her personally from engaging in piracy

and with pirates and with her pirate crews. The final one here is actually much different about her surrender, and this story in her legend tells that she allegedly threw herself off of a cliff rather than surrender to the Roman Republic. Perhaps not surprisingly and almost certainly because it's the most dramatic, The most popular story of her surrender is that one where she throws herself off of the cliff, and that piece of her legend remains today as a

curse on Risin. That's an ancient town in the Bay of kod Or, Montenegro. That curse rising is a town that too, it had fled to and is now the only town in the region without a real seafaring tradition, and the lord tells us that before plunging to her death, she cursed this town to never be able to build a seafaring vessel there, basically saying, if I die here,

so does this region's relationship with the sea. Despite the fact that that is the most dramatic and most popular story of her death, we don't actually know if that's how she died. We don't know at all how her life ended, and if she didn't die. At this point, it's unclear what happened to this pirate queen after there's no evidence that would corroborate the jumping off a cliff to her death story. Neither has a tomb ever been uncovered, so we don't know the reason for anyone's cause of

death in the story. Because of the same reason. It's the third century b C. So it's not entirely strange. And as we said, given how far back these events took place, it's sometimes really hard to know. So when it comes to Toyota, we don't know if she was better or worse or completely different than a historians captured and wrote down. And the same is really true of

everyone that we just talked about. History, modern and ancient is full of rulers who were powerful women, women who might stand up to the Roman Republic, women who are still celebrated today, whether they led an army of pirates or they did the pirate ing themselves. So Toyota has her own sort of folk hero status, even if her story can't be verified. Corea, would you like to step inside the groggery, I will be right there, okay. So I wanted to think about uh spirit that is associated

with the Mediterranean. Now, if you look up Albanian spirits, a lot of them are very fruit based. Those are cool and it's very um if you'll forgive the accidental kind of wordsmanship, they're they're very right for potential experimentation. But this is another one where I wanted to make something that might not be what people think they will like, but it's surprisingly yummy, so instead I went with another Mediterranean spirit. It starts with uzo. Oh my god, all right,

so what are we calling? So I love Uso, and I know it's not for everyone because it's you know, annas and it has that LICORICEI flavor. I love an Anna set, I love any of the European liquorice liqueurs I'm into. But I thought it would be fun since that you know, is most associated with Grease, which was an area where she was sailing and potentially, like some of her privateers, may have brought her some back, so

it ties into the whole story. And I also wanted to do something that nods to the Uso citrus in the area, which is pretty common both in the cuisine and the beverages. So it's essentially a lemonade and uzo bas drink. I'm calling it too discurse, but it it isn't a curse. It's in fact delicious. You made me a drink, right. So I discovered in prepping for this that if you squirrel around online, there are a lot of people that do kind of a lemonade with uzo,

and there are variations. Mine is the easy peasy version because most of them want you to do like a more from the ground up, from scratch kind of lemonade base where you use lemon juice and water and you add honey or some of their sweetener. I think you can just grab lemonade from the store. It's fine, um. And I did that, and I got like a lower sugar lemonade because I usually do. It is one ounce of uzo, one ounce of vodka. I used a citrus vodka,

like a grapefruit vodka, and that was yummy. But you can also just use your basic, straight clean vodka. And then I did about five ounces of lemonade and I shook it all together and just poured it over ice. You can, you know, garnish that with a piece of citrus, or with a little mint sprig if you want to just add a nice aromatic to it. Here's what's interesting. I'll have everyone know that. She lenned in and she said, here's the thing. I know that not everybody likes licorice

flavored things. Annis doesn't work for everyone, including my guinea pig. I e my beloved husband, but I asked him. I was like, just try this, though, because something happens when you mix the uzo and the lemonade where that licoricey flavor gets countered by the citrus in a way that that makes it not quite what I think most people are responding to when they say they don't like annis flavor. And he was like, this is not bad at all.

And so that to me is like a resounding the endorsement of his drink, because that's about as enthusiastic as he's going to get regarding a cocktail with ingredients he's suspicious of. Um. So I absolutely loved it. I thought it was so delicious and super yummy, and I see why a lot of people have done this sort of combo or some variation on it. If you want to do a non alcoholic version, it's very easy you, but it does require you to be a little bit careful.

I used a dropper and I put about three drops of Annas extract like that you would get for baking, in the base of my glass over some ice, and then I poured the lemon the lemonade on top of it gave it a good stir. The reason I say you want to be very careful is that anytime you're dealing with an extract, it's so highly concentrated that like, you can easily go overboard absolutely, Like you don't want to get a single spoon involved. You literally want drops,

not even your quarter teaspoon, You want only drops. The good news is if you overdo it, you can just keep adding lemonade until you get the mix you like. You can even dilute with water a little bit. Also, since we're kind of in that time, even though this has been a blistering lye hot summer and it doesn't really feel like we're in autumn yet, but it's like a nice transition flavor from summer into autumn because that liquorice little undercurrent gives it a nice hey, we're heading

into its or rombust flavors that is Toots curse. I am going to drink a lot of these well because they're they're interesting. It's an unusual flavor that you're not normally getting. I think it's interesting on the palette. Actually, I'm curious to try. It's very refreshing and it's easy as pie to throw together. So like, it's a great one to do in a picture form if you're having people over who are willing to take that walk with you.

Even if you are not a liquorice person. The other thing I was gonna say is that if people for whatever reason don't have access to usso you can also do this with any kind of liquorice. Liquor like, any kind of ANNA set will work fine. It'll change the profile a little bit because they just concentrate a little bit differently, but it will still be very yummy. I tried it a quick version with an annaset and it was also delicious. I'm super excited about this drink. It

has things in it that I like. Everything in it. I love listen. I try to take care view when I can, you really do. I feel like this drink is made for me. So if you try it, we hope that you love it. We also hope you've enjoyed this little chat we've had today and spending time with us. We're so grateful that you do. So. We have so many more pirates on the horizon, so thank you for spending time with us this weekend. There is gonna be

more next week, also with drinks. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.